The Trump administration is advising federal agencies to dismiss probationary employees, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of workers. This move comes amidst a series of political developments, including the Republican-led Senate's slow-walking of Rep. Elise Stefanik's nomination for UN ambassador and a lawsuit against the administration's freeze on federal funding by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump's nominee for education secretary, in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington on Dec. 9.by advising agency leaders to dismiss probationary employees. Hundreds of thousands of people could be affected, though the exact number of expected dismissals was not immediately clear.to impose "fair and reciprocal" tariffs against U.S. trading partners, including allies.
Over the past two weeks, Republican leaders in the state have feuded with Gov. Ron DeSantis over the direction of immigration reform in the state, with the fighting spilling over at times into nasty, personal territory on social media, with DeSantis supporters on one side and GOP legislative leadership mostly on the receiving end.
“Next week there’s a meeting in Saudi Arabia, not with myself, or President Putin, but with top officials, and Ukraine will be a part of it, too, and we’re going to seeAs the longest-serving Senate leader in history, Republican Mitch McConnell had a reputation for keeping his rank-and-file members in line andNow out of leadership and wrapping up what is likely to be his last term in office, McConnell, 82, of Kentucky, is free from the constraints of leadership and the prospect of facing voters...
Meanwhile, some staff members still at the department said they have been instructed not to communicate with outside organizations that they normally correspond with, such as education trade groups, schools or people seeking updates on civil rights complaints they filed, effectively bringing the work of some employees to a halt.Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and a bipartisan group of lawmakers will take part in the Munich Security Conference this weekend.
Democrats are expected to force dilatory procedural votes Monday afternoon before Thune can make his move, but they will not affect the outcome. “Nine million veterans are watching you give them the middle finger, and we’re not going to stand for it,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said. “We are going to fight Elon Musk’s plan to slash and trash the VA in the biggest power grab and heist of valuable information and money in our nation’s history.”“These are the same politicians and billionaires who never miss a photo-op with veterans. These same ones who wave the flags and talk about supporting our troops,” Takano said.
"Vaccines should be tested. They should be safe. Everybody should have informed consent. People are reacting because they hear things about me that aren't true. They hear characterizations of things that I've said that are simply not true, and when they hear what I have to say actually about vaccines, everybody supports it," he said.
“Stopping care in the middle of receiving it — any care, really — casts doubt on whether the goals are to protect the recipients of the care,” Hurson said at the hearing.During the hearing, Joshua Brock, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, noted that Trump's orders came only after several bills that would limit transgender health care for minors failed to pass in Congress.
"Look, it's not a question of liking Russia or not liking Russia," Trump added."It was the G8, and you know, I said: 'What are you doing? You guys, all you talk about is Russia, and they should be sitting at the table.'"He also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin"would love to be back," and that if President Barack Obama hadn't united with other G8 nations to remove Russia, it might never have invaded Ukraine.
"I’m a survivor of childhood polio," McConnell said in a statement explaining his vote today."In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world. I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles.""He’s not equipped mentally," Trump said."He wasn’t equipped.
"I think we’re on the way to getting peace. I think President Putin wants peace and President Zelenskyy wants peace, and I want peace," Trump said.Asked by a reporter in the Oval Office if the Department of Government Efficiency is planning to close the IRS, Trump said he doesn’t expect it but that the agency will be “looked at like everybody else.”
"I spoke to Governor Trudeau on numerous occasions, and we'll see what happens," Trump said, referring to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Nichols will issue a written order on federal employee labor unions’ request for a full preliminary injunction that would permanently halt the USAID cuts while litigation proceeds before the temporary restraining order expires, he said.
Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, who was next to Trump in the Oval Office, said that they're aiming for the tariffs to take effect around April 1.Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon has resigned, a senior official tells NBC News. “Thomson Reuters Special Services , LLC is a separate U.S. legal entity governed by an independent Board of Directors, that operates independently from Reuters News. Recent public discourse has conflated these entities and has inaccurately represented the nature of the business between TRSS and the Department of Defense,” Steve Rubley, CEO of Thomson Reuters Special Services, said in a statement.
After the Senate votes on Lutnick, they will vote on another procedural motion to advance Kelly Loeffler’s nomination to be SBA administrator. In further explaining his “no” vote, Markey also criticized Loeffler for her “unapologetic defense” of Trump’s executive orders, which he said “supersede the law of the land,” and her support ofActor and producer Issa Rae announced the cancellation of her sold-out Kennedy Center show in an Instagram post this afternoon.
“It’s all ridiculous and comical but I’ll point out that PARADE is playing at the Kennedy Center in August and we’re not changing One Word,” Brown wrote. “This civil lawsuit based upon thirty-plus year-old allegations is filled with scurrilous lies, exaggerations, and misrepresentations regarding Linda McMahon,” attorney Laura Brevetti said in a statement to NBC News. “Ms. McMahon will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit and without doubt ultimately succeed.”
"Can you imagine them teaching?" Banks said."These people teaching our kids in classrooms across America, and they come here and act like children.""I want to address how shameful it was to say 'who would want to be taught by them.' They are exactly the kind of people who we want teaching our children," Alsobrooks said.
When he offered McMahon an opening to respond, she told him,"Well, that was certainly a broad view of what is going on right now."As she went on to defend the DOGE employees evaluating the Education Department, Markey cut her off, prompting McMahon to say:"If I may, senator, you've asked me a question and I'd really like the opportunity to answer."
"Private schools aren't taking federal dollars, so they have the ability to say ... if they believe that they cannot best serve that student and they’re not taking federal dollars, then they have the right not to accept that student," McMahon answered."I'm speaking specifically when we talk about — there's a lot of conversation about vouchers.
“I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles,” McConnell said.Now that he’s got the job, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may struggle to navigate his new position as secretary of health and human services as the agency contends with potential job cuts and the administration works to pursue Trump’s agendas, experts say.
He alleged that allowing transgender women into women's facilities resulted in"young woman after young woman denied basic safety in their changing facilities — for heaven's sake — basic safety in their dorm rooms."Rep. Gabe Vasquez, a two-term Democrat from Texas, expressed support for Trump’s executive actions to combat cartels in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, co-written with a Republican colleague.
The lawmakers, who launched their bipartisan caucus in 2023, also requested a meeting with Rubio within the first 100 days of the administration. Musk also said at the summit that his efforts to reduce the federal workforce will benefit other countries as they'll prevent the U.S. from"interfering with the affairs of other countries."
"Would public schools be in violation of this order? Would they risk funding if they had clubs that students could belong to based on their racial or ethnic identity?" Murphy asked McMahon, who was not able to give a concrete answer.
McMahon added,"We don’t have enough skill-based learning. We don’t have enough internships or apprenticeship programs. I’d also like to see more dual credits in our high schools, our junior and senior years, that would count towards community colleges or other institutes that would get students through college faster."Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.
Other Republican senators, including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, were hesitant to support Kennedy’s confirmation but said their concerns were assuaged after he assured them he would not use his position to spread anti-vaccine rhetoric.The Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote on Kash Patel’s nomination to be Trump’s FBI director is ongoing, as Democrats issue dire warnings about his confirmation.
McMahon responded that DOGE was just doing an audit, and later said that members of Musk’s team had been onboarded as employees of the department and would operate under typical restraint applied to staff at the agency. "Certainly President Trump understands that," McMahon said, adding:"We'll be working with Congress. We'd like to do this right. We'd like to make sure that we are presenting a plan that I think our senators could get on board with, and our Congress could get on board with."
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