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    House Democrat Announces Abrupt Exit From DOGE

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    20

    Late Thursday, Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.) announced her departure from the congressional Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Caucus over Elon Musk’s cost-cutting measures in the executive branch.

    Hoyle made the announcement via a statement and said her intentions on the caucus were to serve as a good steward for her constituents’ tax dollars and to make the government more streamlined and efficient. 

    However, she said Musk’s actions, which are separate from the congressional caucus, have made that impossible, and she claimed DOGE’s work is to find funds to give tax breaks to billionaires at the expense of working people.

    “I joined to be a voice for working people and their interests. But it is impossible to fix the system when Elon Musk is actively breaking it, so I have made the decision to leave,” Hoyle wrote on X late Thursday. 

    “It is impossible for us to do that important work when unelected billionaire Elon Musk and his lackeys [insist] on burning down the government—and the law—to line his own pockets and rip off Americans across the country who depend on government services to live with dignity,” she wrote in an accompanying statement. 

    Hoyle said she was alarmed about Musk’s team accessing sensitive Department of Treasury payment systems. She also accused his team of using intimidation tactics to “terrorize the hard-working public servants” who deliver these services.

    On Thursday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the DOGE from obtaining access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained within the Treasury’s Bureau of Fiscal Service. (RELATED: Federal Judge Pauses Trump Federal Worker Buyouts)

    Hoyle said that if she thought that she, or Democrats or Republicans on the caucus had any influence, then she would stay. 

    “But, fundamentally, I don’t see how we can actually do this work when Elon Musk is blowing things up,” she told NewsNation Thursday. “It’s like trying to replace your roof when someone’s throwing dynamite through the window.

    “So I’m leaving the DOGE Caucus, I will continue to do the work to find efficiencies, but right now I just don’t think it’s possible with what’s happening.”

    DOGE has focused much of its initial work on canceling DEI programs, consulting contracts and lease terminations for federal buildings.

    The agency wrote on Tuesday that it canceled 12 contracts with the Government Services Administration and the Department of Education, resulting in a total savings of about $30 million. It also canceled 12 underused leases for savings of $3 million. On Monday, DOGE said it canceled 36 contracts, leading to savings of about $165 million across six agencies.

    Federal Judge Pauses Trump Federal Worker Buyouts

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    10

    A federal judge on Thursday extended the deadline for federal workers to accept the Trump administration’s sweeping buyout offer. 

    The move comes as the government had set a Thursday deadline for federal workers to determine whether they wanted to take the deal – something they could do by simply replying “resign.”

    Workers will now have until Monday to accept the deal, giving more time to weigh the unusual offer.

    The buyouts promise employees eight months of pay and benefits in exchange for leaving the federal workforce, telling workers they would be off the hook for showing up to work and would be free to get another job.

    “We are pleased the court temporarily paused this deadline while arguments are heard about the legality of the deferred resignation program. We continue to believe this program violates the law, and we will continue to aggressively defend our members’ rights,” American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) president Everett Kelley said in a statement.

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    Federal Judge Orders Limited DOGE Access To Treasury Payment System

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    10
    UK Government, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    On Thursday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from obtaining access to certain Treasury Department payment records.

    Treasury officials “will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained within the [Treasury] Bureau of Fiscal Service,” Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote in a temporary restraining order.

    That program handles an estimated 90% of federal payments. 

    The order comes after the Justice Department on Wednesday agreed in a proposed court order to limit access to the sensitive records to only two “special government employees” within DOGE, who will have read-only permission. Kollar-Kotelly approved the motion in a brief order Thursday.

    Several government employee unions brought suit over who could access the material as part of a government-wide evaluation of programs and systems, led by DOGE. 

    dcd-afra-v-bessentDownload

    The lawsuit claimed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent allowed improper access to Elon Musk’s team, potentially exposing personal financial information to unauthorized individuals. 

    Under the order, only Musk ally Tom Krause, CEO of Cloud Software Group, and Marko Elez – an engineer and former Musk company employee — will continue to have access to Treasury’s Fiscal Service, but they will not be allowed to make any changes to the program. 

    Report: Trump Drafting Executive Order To Dismantle Dept. Of Education

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    5

    Top Trump officials are reportedly circulating a draft executive order to begin the process of dismantling the Department of Education.

    The draft order would be a step toward fulfilling a key campaign promise President Donald Trump made to return education policy back to the states. The order would not direct the dismantling of the department, but request a plan to do so from the Education secretary, according to ABC News.

    The order would also call on Congress to pass legislation striking the department from federal statute. Trump may sign the order soon, according to ABC News, however, no set date has been determined.

    The order, if signed, would likely be carried out by Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Education, Linda McMahon. Some officials in the Trump administration are pushing for the president to hold off signing the order until after McMahon’s confirmation, according to The Wall Street Journal, presumably to avoid hindering her nomination in the Senate.

    McMahon’s nomination is currently paused in the Senate as lawmakers wait to receive ethics paperwork. Her nomination hearing has not been scheduled.

    The Department of Government Efficiency, the government cost-cutting crusade led by Elon Musk, has begun to look at ways of trimming the Department of Education through executive action, according to The Washington Post.

    Trump could order cuts to certain areas of the Department of Education and roll back or stop some controversial actions the department took under former President Joe Biden, such as mass forgiveness of student loans. Deconstructing the department would take an act of Congress, however.

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    Report: USAID Closes HQ To Staffers Monday As Musk Says Trump Supports Shutting Agency Down

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    1
    UK Government, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    A significant development…

    U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) staffers said that they tracked over 600 workers who reported getting locked out of the USAID computer systems overnight, according to the Associated Press. People who remained in the system got emails stating that “at the direction of Agency leadership” the headquarters facility “will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, Feb. 3.”

    Elon Musk, who is spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort, had said during an X spaces conversation that President Donald Trump agreed that the USAID should be shut down.

    Musk indicated that the shut-down process is underway. 

    He said that unlike an apple contaminated by a worm, the agency is “a bowl of worms.”

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    White House Budget Office Rescinds Federal Funding Freeze

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    4
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Just in…

    The Trump’s administration’s Office of Management and Budget released a memo Wednesday rescinding a controversial order that froze a wide swath of federal financial assistance, which had paralyzed many federal programs and caused a huge uproar on Capitol Hill.

    The decision came amid strong behind-the-scenes pushback from Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, according to a GOP senator who was apprised of the decision to reverse the policy order.

    The reversal was signed by Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the White House budget office.

    The order, issued Monday evening from Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, sent shockwaves across the country and drew outrage from politicians

    The funding freeze was originally scheduled to kick in at 5:00 pm ET on Tuesday and expected to remain in place through at least mid-February, The New York Times reported. Vaeth’s memo ordered that all federal agencies “must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”

    The memo swiftly drew a legal challenge filed by several nonprofit groups, arguing that it violated both the First Amendment and federal law on how executive orders can be implemented, and the plaintiffs secured an emergency hearing that took place just minutes before the funding freeze was set to go into effect.

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump’s Order Pausing Federal Aid Funding

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    0

    A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s effort to freeze all federal aid funding.

    The order, issued Monday evening from Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, sent shockwaves across the country and drew outrage from politicians

    The funding freeze was originally scheduled to kick in at 5:00 pm ET on Tuesday and expected to remain in place through at least mid-February, The New York Times reported. Vaeth’s memo ordered that all federal agencies “must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”

    The memo swiftly drew a legal challenge filed by several nonprofit groups, arguing that it violated both the First Amendment and federal law on how executive orders can be implemented, and the plaintiffs secured an emergency hearing that took place just minutes before the funding freeze was set to go into effect.

    US District Judge Loren L. AliKhan issued a ruling imposing a temporary hold, saying it would be “a way of preserving the status quo” and give the court time to consider the challenge more fully and issue a permanent ruling by Feb. 3.

    This administrative stay was “really for the court’s benefit,” said the judge. “It’s really for the court to have full briefing” and properly consider the arguments from the plaintiffs and the Trump administration.

    The funding that appeared to be affected by the memo involved “programs that affect people’s lives,” said CNN reporter JeffZeleny, including Head Start, Meals on Wheels, and various Medicaid programs. The White House had insisted there would be no pause on spending that affected people directly, but there was still “so much confusion,” he added, and multiple states reported their Medicaid website portals — the way people get Medicaid reimbursements — were “simply not working.”

    This order paused the funding freeze until next Monday, Feb. 3, Zeleny concluded, “and then there will be more court cases to come, obviously. But it is just the latest example of the president and the Trump administration’s exertion of their executive authority.”

    Trump Revokes Security Clearances For Officials Linked To Hunter Biden Laptop Letter

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    3
    President Joe Biden hugs his family during the 59th Presidential Inauguration ceremony in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. (DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II)

    In one of his first moves as President, Trump revoked the security clearances of more than 50 national security officials who said Hunter Biden’s laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

    In 2020, a total of 51 former national security officials released a public letter in 2020 claiming that even though the laptop did not have “any evidence of Russian involvement,” it looked like a “Russian information operation.”

    The letter came after the New York Post reported that they had emails showing Hunter Biden coordinated for Joe Biden to meet with a top executive at Ukrainian energy company Burisma months before pressuring Ukrainian officials to oust a prosecutor to investigate the company. 

    Included on the list are former director of National Intelligence James Clapper Jr., former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency Michael Hayden, John Brennan, former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and former National Security Advisor John Bolton. 

    Fox News Digital previously reported that federal investigators with the Department of Justice were aware that Hunter Biden’s laptop was not manipulated and contained “reliable evidence.” 

    The order was one of more than 200 executive orders Trump approved on Inauguration Day, joining directives like withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement that the U.S. initially entered under former President Barack Obama’s administration in 2015. 

    Other executive orders Trump signed on day one include rescinding nearly 80 executive orders and memoranda issued under Biden, issuing a regulatory and hiring freeze upon the federal government, preventing “government censorship” of free speech, and directing every department and agency to address the cost of living crisis. 

    Prior to Trump’s Inauguration, the House Judiciary Committee signaled it plans to continue its probe into the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden who was issued a full pardon by his father.

    READ NEXT: Republican Says Hunter Biden Investigation Will Move Forward

    Sneak Peek: Trump’s Executive Orders Planned For Day One

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    1
    Gage Skidmore Flickr

    It’s going to be a busy day!

    President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance are scheduled to be sworn in shortly before noon and then will hit the ground running.

    Trump is planning to enact nearly 200 wide-ranging executive actions after his inauguration on Monday.

    Among the actions Trump is set to take are declaring a national emergency at the southern border to mobilize the military – and fast-track construction of his border wall – ending birthright citizenship, pausing refugee resettlement programs and designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

    A senior administration official, authorized to discuss the plans in an exclusive briefing with Fox News Digital, described the effort as a “massive, record-setting” and “unmatched first wave” of policy directives that will cover immigration, energy, and government reform that rolls back Biden-era policies.

    The official told Fox News Digital that the theme of the push was “promises made, promises kept” going on to describe the effort as “a historic series of executive orders and actions that will fundamentally reform the American government.”

    Here’s a look at just 31 of those executive actions Trump plans to take significant enough to be mentioned in the brief:

    1. End “Catch and Release” – Trump will put an end to the release of undocumented immigrants into the U.S. while they await court hearings.

    2. Pause all offshore wind leases – Trump will halt offshore wind energy projects.

    3. Terminate the electric vehicle mandate – Trump plans to scrap federal mandates requiring automakers to shift production toward electric vehicles.

    4. Abolish the Green New Deal – The administration will repeal policies associated with the Green New Deal, aiming to remove restrictions on traditional energy industries.

    5. Withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord – Trump will take immediate steps to pull the U.S. out of the international climate agreement.

    6. Declare a national border emergency – Trump will take executive action to declare the situation at the southern border a national emergency.

    7. Direct military support to secure the southern border – The Department of Homeland Security and the military will collaborate to tighten security along the U.S.-Mexico border.

    8. Establish a national priority to eliminate all criminal cartels – The administration will make fighting cartel activity on U.S. soil a key aim.

    9. Close the border to all illegal aliens via proclamation – A presidential proclamation will effectively shut the border to illegal crossings.

    10. Create homeland security task forces – Task forces made up of FBI, ICE, and CEA officers will be established to combat criminal cartels.

    11. Designate cartels as foreign terrorist organizations – This designation will “unlock new authorities” to combat cartels, according to the administration.

    12. Reinstate “Remain in Mexico” – The Trump administration will bring back the policy requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims are processed.

    13. Construct new border wall sections – Trump will direct the military to expand the border wall infrastructure.

    14. Grant emergency authorities to suspend illegal entry – Apprehended individuals will be “swiftly returned to their countries of origin.”

    15. “Fully unleash” Alaskan energy – Trump’s energy plan will tap into Alaska’s natural resources to boost national security.

    16. Terminate Biden-era energy policies – The administration aims to repeal policies that have “constrained U.S. energy supply.”

    17. Reform the federal workforce – Trump will reestablish presidential control over career federal employees.

    18. Strengthen presidential control over senior officials – New executive orders will clarify the president’s authority over high-ranking federal employees.

    19. Implement a new merit-based hiring review – Federal hiring will be restructured to prioritize merit over other factors.

    20. Return federal workers to in-person work – Remote work policies established during the pandemic will be rolled back.

    21. End federal government “weaponization” – Trump aims to stop what he calls the “abusive behavior” of federal agencies.

    22. Restore freedom of speech – Executive action will be taken to “end federal censorship.”

    23. Suspend security clearances of officials involved in Hunter Biden laptop controversy – The security clearances of 51 officials who “lied” about the laptop will be revoked.

    24. Establish biological sex definitions – The administration will issue an order defining biological sex in federal policies.

    25. Rename the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” – Trump will sign an order changing the name of the large body of water bordering the southern U.S.

    26. End all DEI programs in federal government – Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs will be eliminated across federal agencies.

    27. Establish a hiring freeze in the new Department of Government Efficiency – Trump will pause new hires to reduce government spending.

    28. Gain control over foreign aid and NGO funding – The administration will take steps to control how foreign aid is distributed.

    29. Remove federal actions that increase costs for families – Agencies will be directed to eliminate regulations that drive up costs for consumers.

    30. Extend the TikTok transition period – A new order will delay the enforcement of a law banning the app to allow negotiations.

    31. Shield companies from liability over TikTok compliance – Businesses that kept TikTok operational before Trump’s order will face no penalties.

    Biden Issues Preemptive Pardons To Siblings, Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, and J6 Panel Members

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    3
    The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

    With minutes left in his presidency, Joe Biden issued pardons to his family members.

    The pardon applies to James Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John Owens, and Francis Biden, the White House announced.

    “I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics. But baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted individuals and their families. Even when individuals have done nothing wrong and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage their reputations and finances,” Biden said in a statement.

    Hours before Donald Trump’s Inauguration ceremony, President Joe Biden also granted pardons to several public servants, who have faced attacks from the incoming President

    President Biden pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and others who some speculated may have faced investigations under the incoming Trump administration on Monday.

    “Our nation relies on dedicated, selfless public servants every day. They are the lifeblood of our democracy,” Biden said. “Yet alarmingly, public servants have been subjected to ongoing threats and intimidation for faithfully discharging their duties.”

    In addition to the named individuals, the pardon applies to, “Members of Congress and staff who served on the Select Committee, and the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the Select Committee.”

    Notably, Special Counsel Jack Smith, former FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland are not included in the pardon, despite speculation that they may face backlash from the incoming administration.

    Milley thanked Biden in a statement on Monday.

    “My family and I are deeply grateful for the President’s action today,” he wrote. “After forty-three years of faithful service in uniform to our Nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights.

    “I do not want to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense, and anxiety,” he added.

    Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has been a frequent target of political criticism in recent years as the face of the federal government response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Speaking with ABC News’ chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl, Fauci addressed Biden’s decision, said:

    I really truly appreciate the action President Biden has taken today on my behalf. Let me be perfectly clear, Jon, I have committed no crime, you know that, and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me.

    Fauci went on to acknowledge that the mere possibility of prosecution has placed an “immeasurable and intolerable distress” on him and his family.

    President-elect Trump told NBC that it was disgraceful President Biden issued the pardons.

    “It is disgraceful. Many are guilty of MAJOR CRIMES! DJT” Trump texted NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker.

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