Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is considering introducing legislation that would ban National Public Radio (NPR) from receiving federal funding, according to Fox News.
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Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs addressed possible concerns about lower than requested funding in the spending deal signed by President Joe Biden last week.
Hobbs, as well as Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, welcomed the news of $650 million being allocated toward the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Shelter and Services Program, The Center Square reported. However, the trio first asked for $752 million to go toward the fund, as it ends up being distributed.
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Some Arizona leaders are breathing a sigh of relief as the federal government passed funding that will presumably go toward transporting migrants out of border communities or caring for them while there.
There was widespread concern about daily mass migrant street releases starting in April, as federal funding for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Shelter and Services Program was set to expire on April 1, The Center Square previously reported.
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Ohio U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) and Indiana U.S. Representative Jim Banks (R-IN-03) have introduced a bill that would prohibit universities that receive federal funding from hiring illegal aliens.
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Pennsylvania will receive hundreds of millions of dollars to plug defunct oil and gas wells that may pose health and environmental threats.
And now, the state’s existing program is getting more scrutiny for how it prioritizes projects and uses that money.
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The threat of losing federal funding or defending against an expensive lawsuit, for allegedly promoting discrimination against popular punching bags on campus, isn’t dissuading the University of Wisconsin Law School from inculcating students in the dogma of diversity, equity and inclusion.
UW Law required first-year students to participate in a “reorientation” Friday that catechized the same ideologies that prompted doctor and House Appropriations Committee member Rep. Andy Harris to float federal funding cuts to medical schools that force DEI upon students.
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Call it the big reset – downward – in public education.
The alarming plunge in academic performance during the pandemic was met with a significant drop in grading and graduation standards to ease the pressure on students struggling with remote learning. The hope was that hundreds of billions of dollars of emergency federal aid would enable schools to reverse the learning loss and restore the standards.
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Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is allocating $2.3 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act in order to support state elections ahead of 2024.
In addition, the governor issued three Executive Orders pertaining to elections on Thursday. One will allow state employees to take time off as paid leave in order to be poll workers, one prompting “state agencies to provide voter registration information and assistance” to Arizonans, and another allowing state government buildings to be used as voting locations.
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The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority is set to receive $100 million in federal funding for another transportation project designed to improve travel in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.
Drivers traveling from Fredericksburg into the district should be enjoying reduced commute times due to the installation of the long-awaited express lanes along the I-95 corridor. Soon, construction will begin on the Franconia-Springfield Bypass. This rail bridge will allow Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express trains to “seamlessly cross over two freight rail tracks, preventing delays and expanding capacity for additional service,” according to a press release from U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine’s office.
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On Monday, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) and Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) announced the creation of a new Joint Working Group to study the impact federal funds have on education in the Volunteer State.
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Connecticut is tapping into federal funding to provide hundreds of thousands of public school students with free breakfast and lunch.
The state Department of Education announced that $16 million of funding the state received from the American Rescue Plan Act will be diverted to Connecticut’s free school meals program for the 2023-2024 school year, allowing students to get free meals regardless of their family’s income.
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Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) filed legislation on Tuesday that would reverse the Biden Administration’s decision to defund school archery and hunting programs
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More than two dozen cities and counties across Virginia are slated to receive a portion of nearly $100 million in federal funding for affordable housing and homelessness, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, D-VA, announced this week.
Localities across the Commonwealth are expected to receive a portion of more than $98.3 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti recently joined a bipartisan group of 35 state attorneys general in sending a letter to Congressional leaders requesting assistance regarding the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Tennessee Speaker of the House, Cameron Sexton to the newsmaker line to discuss his recent proposal in the Tennessee General Assembly which would reject federal education funding in the state.
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Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) is reportedly in talks with state lawmakers, lobbyists, and other leaders to introduce a bill that would stop the state from accepting federal K-12 education dollars, according to a Wednesday report by The Associated Press.
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Arizona State Rep. David Cook (R-Globe) announced Thursday that he is seeking federal aid in financing a project to widen Interstate 10 (I-10) between Chandler and Casa Grande.
“The state of Arizona has invested a total of $630 million into this project to date. The Mega grant is the missing piece that will finally complete this essential artery and bring relief to thousands of residents throughout Arizona and the country,” Cook wrote.
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Minnesota will award $27 million in state funding and $42.6 million in federal funding to broadband expansion projects across the state.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development on Monday launched a request for proposals for the funding. The funding supports the state’s goal that all homes and businesses have access `to broadband with download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second and upload speeds of at least 20 megabits per second by 2026, the news release said.
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Pittsburgh Regional Transit agency’s annual increase in federal money in 2020 was nearly 75%, following similar trends in transit agencies across the country.
This financial support by the federal government was an important part of maintaining service throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when ridership dropped significantly, according to the transit agency.
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The Arizona-based Goldwater Institute recently shared that a report from Matt Beienburg, Goldwater’s Director of Education Policy, reveals how spending surged in Arizona’s Public School system, but not for the actual needs of students.
“The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in an era of unprecedented spending on public K-12 schools, yet available evidence suggests that the bonanza of federal spending was almost entirely avoidable and that much of it will likely serve a very different purpose than the one originally sold to policymakers and the public,” according to Goldwater Institute.
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Federal funding to combat youth substance abuse is coming to Connecticut, U.S. Rep. John B. Larson says.
The veteran legislator announced the state has received $375,000 from the Drug-Free Community Support Program that will be used to assist three coalitions working to prevent substance abuse in Connecticut’s First District, serving Hartford, Litchfield and Middlesex counties.
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Governor Tony Evers (D-WI) announced a new round of funding from the federal government that is aimed to address violent crime in Wisconsin.
Roughly $800,000 will be directed to the city of Racine and will focus on a “public health approach to violence prevention,” according to a release from the governor’s office.
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Baltimore plans to spend $90.4 million of federal funds to buy hotels to replace existing homeless shelters and support other homelessness programs, The Baltimore Sun reported Tuesday.
The city has not yet announced which hotels it will buy, but it plans to replace 275 existing beds in several shelters with private rooms in city-owned hotels, the Sun reported.
“Non-congregate shelter is a best practice we’re seeing throughout the nation,” Director of the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services Irene Agustin told the Sun. “We know this is an intervention that’s going to work within the city of Baltimore.”
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Pennsylvania has launched a new $350 million program designed to help homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gov. Tom Wolf announced the statewide launch of the Pennsylvania Homeowner Assistance Fund (PAHAF) on Thursday after approval from the U.S. Department of Treasury. The fund utilizes $350 million from the American Rescue Plan Act distributed to Pennsylvania through the treasury’s Homeowner Assistance Fund to help homeowners avoid mortgage delinquencies, defaults and foreclosures, as well as for help paying utilities.
“As we continue to advance our COVID-19 recovery efforts, we must address the rising number of homeowners facing possible loss of their homes and foreclosure – this program will do just that,” Wolf said. “The Homeowner Assistance Fund will prioritize individuals and families with the greatest need, as well as those who are socially disadvantaged. I am grateful that the U.S. Treasury has approved Pennsylvania’s plan, and we can start the new year by distributing this critical funding to homeowners.”
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) selected Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) as a recipient of a grant from the STOP School Violence Program.
The funds, totaling $990,927, are aimed to advance school safety by instituting safety measures in and around primary and secondary schools across the country.
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Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is leading a coalition of Republicans in Congress to sponsor legislation that would ban federal funding to states or localities that allow foreigners to vote in U.S. elections.
The new legislation, dubbed the Protecting Our Democracy by Preventing Foreign Citizens from Voting Act, was introduced after many liberal municipalities from San Francisco to New York have moved in 2021 to allow non-citizens to cast ballots in local elections
“It’s ridiculous that states are allowing foreign citizens to vote,” Rubio said. “However, if states and localities do let those who are not U.S. citizens to vote in elections, they shouldn’t get U.S. citizen taxpayer money.”
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U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation that would prohibit the federal government and any entity at the federal, state and local level that receives federal funding, including school districts, from requiring COVID-19 vaccines for minors.
“Parents should have the right to decide what is best for their children in consultation with their family doctor,” he said. “My view on the COVID-19 vaccine has remained clear: no mandates of any kind.
“President [Joe] Biden and his administration have repeatedly ignored medical privacy rights and personal liberty by pushing unlawful and burdensome vaccine mandates on American businesses, and now they are preparing to push a mandate on kids by pressuring parents – all without taking into account relative risk or the benefits of natural immunity.”
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The U.S. federal government should have stopped funding research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2015 when China reduced its cooperation with the French in building and operating the lab, according to the leader of an investigation into COVID-19’s origins by the State Department under the Trump administration.
In 2015, French intelligence officials warned the U.S. State Department and their own foreign ministry that China was cutting back on agreed collaboration at the lab, former State official David Asher, now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
By 2017, the French “were kicked out” of the lab and cooperation ceased, leading French officials to warn the State Department that they had grave concerns as to Chinese motivations, according to Asher.
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Relative to the national trend, job searches temporarily increased in states that have announced they will no longer offer the pandemic-related federal unemployment boost, an economic report showed.
In states that are withdrawing from the federal unemployment program, interest in job postings increased 5%, according to the report released Thursday by job listings site Indeed. The increase was relative to a national average recorded during the final two weeks of April, before Republican governors began canceling the federal benefit.
“In May, job search activity on Indeed increased, relative to the national trend, in states that announced they would end federal [unemployment] benefits prematurely,” the Indeed report said.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed United States Senator (TN-R) Bill Hagerty to the newsmakers line to answer a tough question about his January sixth vote, Big Tech, S1, and Israel.
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Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed State Rep. Jerry Sexton in studio to discuss critical race theory in Tennessee’s public schools and cutting the strings that are attached to federal education money coming from Washington into the state.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed VP of State Advocacy for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Todd Ziebarth to the newsmakers line to talk about federal funding and state ranking.
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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would withhold money from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions after a U.S. court ruled that his administration could block federal law enforcement funds to states and cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
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The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the White House can withhold funds from sanctuary cities, delivering a victory for President Donald Trump’s fight with jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
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by Fred Lucas Vice President Mike Pence on Friday told a gathering of state governors that the Trump administration is working with Congress on what he called a “historic” infrastructure program that would both reduce red tape and provide more federal funding. Addressing the governors at the vice presidential residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, Pence did not specify a price tag for the infrastructure plan. “I’ll make you a promise, and we’ll ask for your help, that in this Congress, we’re going to pass historic infrastructure legislation,” he said. During the 2016 presidential campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump called for an infrastructure plan of about $1 trillion that would include public and private funding. Such a project should not be a heavy burden on taxpayers, said Paul Winfree, director of economic policy at The Heritage Foundation. “If the Trump administration wants a legacy moment on infrastructure, it must include regulatory improvements that have long-lasting impacts on the way we build everything, from roads and bridges to pipelines and ports,” Winfree told The Daily Signal. The Heritage Foundation earlier this month issued a report calling regulatory reform a key element of future infrastructure projects. “Unleashing the private sector and…
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Phil Bredesen said he had no interest in halting federal funds for Planned Parenthood in a video captured by the Tennessee Republican Party, Politico says. The publication says the topic could become a campaign factor. Watch the video: The Democratic former governor, who is running for the U.S. Senate, told a GOP tracker that he’s “fine” with federal funds going to Planned Parenthood for non-abortion services. A tracker works for a party or other entity to capture candidates’ gaffes on video. About abortion services, Bredesen said: “I don’t have a problem with them doing it.” He called himself “‘pro-choice,’ but emphasized again that federal funds aren’t used for that purpose. “I’m not the least bit interested in defunding Planned Parenthood,” Bredesen said. When Bredesen was governor, Planned Parenthood received state funds that were prohibited from being used for abortion services, Politico said. In a press release, the Tennessee Republican Party pointed out a majority of Tennesseans hold pro-life views. The Daily Caller has called out Bredesen’s waffling on abortion, saying he has “some skeletons in his closet concerning ties to Planned Parenthood and advocating for the public to fund Down syndrome abortions.” The Daily Caller quotes Bredesen as telling The…
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