BIG BILL GETS CLOSER

What to know:

• The Big Beautiful Bill Act clears the Senate: Senate Republicans hauled President Donald Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill to passage Tuesday on the narrowest of votes, pushing past opposition from Democrats and some in their own GOP ranks after a turbulent overnight session. Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie to push it over the top. The three Republicans opposing the bill were Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
• The bill still needs to go back to the House: The bill has to pass the House again before Trump can sign it into law, and the difficulty for Republicans is not expected to let up. Speaker Mike Johnson warned senators not to deviate too far from what his chamber had already approved. But the Senate did make changes, particularly to Medicaid, risking more problems as they race to finish by Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.
• Congressional Budget Office review: The nonpartisan CBO said Sunday the bill would pile nearly $3.3 trillion onto the nation’s debt load from 2025 to 2034, a nearly $1 trillion increase over the House-passed version of the bill. The analysis also found that 11.8 million Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill passed.

And in other news:

• Trump visited immigration detention facility in Florida: The isolated airstrip in the Everglades is surrounded by mosquitoes, alligators and pythons and can house 5,000 detainees. Dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by state officials, it’s another example of the administration’s scare tactics to persuade those in the country illegally to leave voluntarily. The White House suggests the facility will be especially secure, given that it is “surrounded by alligators,” and started selling branded shirts promoting the facility.

André Bauer, a wealthy developer, is mounting the challenge, arguing that Sen. Graham is not conservative enough for the state.

Bauer is a longtime backer of the president. His candidacy sets up a midterm grudge match with the four-term senator, whose relationship with Trump has undulated through the years but who has his endorsement for reelection.

Bauer calls himself “a real, America First conservative” intent on representing South Carolina conservatives’ values.

“I think Graham’s been there too long, and he votes like it,” Bauer told AP. “I’m guaranteed, I’m conservative and I don’t think he is.”

Republicans dominate South Carolina’s statewide elections, so the most intense political competition takes place in GOP primaries.

Graham, who has faced previous challenges from the right, kicked off his reelection campaign in February. At least one other Republican has also announced a primary challenge.

Campaign spokesperson Abby Zilch noted Tuesday that he has earned Trump’s “complete and total endorsement” and said Bauer “has spent his career chasing titles to feed his ego.”

The administration violated federal privacy laws when it turned over Medicaid data on millions of enrollees to deportation officials last month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta alleged Tuesday, saying he and 19 other states’ attorneys general have sued over the move.

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s advisers ordered the release of a dataset including the private health information of people in California, Illinois, Washington, and Washington, D.C., to the Department of Homeland Security last month, AP reported. Those jurisdictions let noncitizens enroll in Medicaid programs that pay for their expenses using only state taxpayer dollars.

The unusual sharing of private health information, including addresses, names, social security numbers, immigration status and claims data, came as deportation officials accelerated enforcement efforts.

HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon has defended the release.

“HHS acted entirely within its legal authority — and in full compliance with all applicable laws — to ensure that Medicaid benefits are reserved for individuals who are lawfully entitled to receive them,” he said in a statement.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked the Trump administration from dismantling the federal agency, which invests in African small businesses.

Leon ruled Tuesday that Trump violated federal law when he appointed Pete Marocco as the new head of USADF because Marocco was never confirmed by Congress.

As a result the judge found Marocco’s actions — terminating most of the agency’s employees and effectively ending its grants — were void and must be undone.

Congress created USADF as an independent agency in 1980, and its board members must be confirmed by the Senate.

The judge found in a separate case that Trump had the legal authority to fire the previous members of the USADF board.

Pirro wrote in court documents in that case that the president also has the legal authority to appoint someone to run USADF until the Senate can confirm his nominees.

The former FBI supervisory agent, Jared Lane Wise, was charged with joining a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol and cheering on rioters.

He is now working as an adviser to DOJ pardon attorney Ed Martin Jr., who is overseeing its “weaponization working group,” according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to publicly discuss a personnel matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The working group is examining the president’s claims of anti-conservative bias inside the department.

When Trump returned to office, he picked Martin to serve as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. But he pulled the nomination after a key Republican senator said he could not support Martin due to his defense of Capitol rioters.

Martin was a leading figure in Trump’s “Stop the Steal” movement and spoke at a rally in Washington on the eve of the Capitol riot. He represented three Jan. 6 defendants and served on the board of the nonprofit Patriot Freedom Project, which reports raising over $2.5 million to support riot defendants.

A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment. The New York Times was first to report on Wise’s appointment.

The president’s promise that it was his best and final offer may find a skeptical audience with Hamas.

Trump has repeatedly issued dramatic ultimatums to pressure Hamas to agree to longer pauses in the fighting that would see the release of more hostages and a return of more aid to Gaza’s civilian populace.

Hamas says it is willing to free all the hostages in exchange for a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and an end to the war in Gaza. Israel rejects that, saying it will agree to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something that the group refuses.

Hamas is still capable of landing fatal blows to Israeli forces. But U.S. officials believe that the group’s been significantly diminished as its centralized command and control capabilities have deteriorated over the course of the nearly 21-month conflict.

Pam Bondi’s recent comments about evidence the Justice Department is reviewing from its Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation has fueled anticipation about the expected release of more files related to the wealthy financier.

But weeks after Bondi’s claim about “tens of thousands” of Epstein videos in the government’s possession, it remains unclear what she was referring to.

A New York financier with ties to politicians and other famous and powerful people, Epstein was arrested in 2019 as he arrived in the U.S. from Paris aboard his private jet and charged with sexually abusing dozens of teenage girls during the early 2000s.

The case was brought more than a decade after a secret plea deal with federal prosecutors in Florida disposed of nearly identical allegations.

▶ Read more about takeaways from AP’s report about the case and Bondi’s remarks

Powell stuck Tuesday to his position that the central bank will keep its key rate on hold while it waits to see how the president’s tariffs affect the economy, despite the steady stream of criticism from the White House, which wants lower borrowing costs.

Powell, speaking in Portugal at a conference hosted by the European Central Bank, also said U.S. inflation is likely to pick up later this summer, though he acknowledged that the timing and magnitude is uncertain. He said the Fed will keep rates on hold while it evaluates the tariffs’ impact.

“As long as the economy is in solid shape, we think the prudent thing to do is to wait and see what those effects might be,” Powell said.

Powell’s comments underscored the divide between him and the Trump administration. Trump has repeatedly urged the Fed to cut its key rate, which he says would save taxpayers billions of dollars and boost the economy.

▶ Read more about Powell and the president’s frustrations with him

The dismissal is the latest example of how the Trump-led CFPB is undoing much of the work it did under President Joe Biden, even in instances where bad actors agreed to provide redress and compensation to victims.

The case dates from late 2024 and deals with an issue known as “authorized positive overdraft fees,” which happen when a bank initially approves a debit card transaction but later charges the customer a overdraft fee when that earlier transaction settles and there are insufficient funds in the account.

Navy Federal was found to authorize these types of overdraft fees between 2017 and 2022, later stopping the practice and refunding some customers.

Under the previous settlement, Navy Federal was to pay a $15 million fine and refund $80 million in illegally paid overdraft fees.

In a statement, Navy Federal defended its use of overdraft and supported the CFPB’s decision. It added that it “complied with all applicable laws and regulations at the time and continues to do so.”

Republicans are getting closer to the finish line in getting their tax and spending cut bill through Congress with a final House vote possible Wednesday.

At some 887 pages, the legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations.

There could be changes as GOP lawmakers continue to negotiate.

▶ Read more about what’s in the bill

The new likeness by artist Vanessa Horabuena of Tempe, Arizona, is a sterner, crisper image than Sarah Boardman’s painting of Trump, which had hung since 2019.

After Trump objected to it this spring, lawmakers announced the next day that they would remove it from a wall of past presidents. By the day after that, it was in museum storage.

The Horabuena portrait went up this week.

“There was a blank on the wall. It seemed inappropriate. We knew that the White House had sent us this replacement, and it simply made sense to put it up,” said Lois Court, a former state lawmaker who chairs the Capitol Building Advisory Committee, which helps select artwork for the statehouse.

On Tuesday the building was sleepy, with lawmakers out of session. A smattering of tourists took photos of the new portrait.

“Thank you to the Highly Talented Artist, Vanessa Horabuena, and the incredible people of Colorado,” Trump said in a social media post.

Trump visited the isolated airstrip, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by state officials, on Tuesday.

The U.S. is halting some shipments of weapons to Ukraine amid concerns that its own stockpiles have declined too much, officials said Tuesday.

Certain munitions were previously promised under the Biden administration for use during Ukraine’s war with Russia. The pause, first reported by Politico, reflects a new set of priorities under Trump.

“This decision was made to put America’s interests first following a DOD review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement.
The Pentagon review determined that stocks were too low for some items previously pledged, so pending shipments of some items won’t be sent, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide information that has not yet been made public.

To date the U.S. has provided Ukraine more than $66 billion worth of weapons and military assistance since Russia invaded in February 2022.

The president announced the development as he prepares to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks at the White House on Monday. Trump has been increasing pressure on the Israeli government and Hamas to broker a ceasefire and hostage agreement and bring about an end to the war in Gaza.

“My Representatives had a long and productive meeting with the Israelis today on Gaza. Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalize the 60 Day CEASEFIRE, during which time we will work with all parties to end the War,” the president wrote, adding that the Qataris and Egyptians would deliver the final proposal.

“I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” he said.

On Tuesday afternoon the University of Pennsylvania’s website showed other athletes as holding the school’s top times in the freestyle events of former women’s team swimmer Lia Thomas, part of a resolution of a federal civil rights case.

The site was annotated with a note that read, “Competing under eligibility rules in effect at the time, Lia Thomas set program records in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle during the 2021-22 season.”

“While Penn’s policies during the 2021-2022 swim season were in accordance with NCAA eligibility rules at the time, we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules,” university President J. Larry Jameson said in a statement. “We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”

Thomas last competed for the school in 2022, when she became the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title.

The sprawling Republican budget bill approved by the Senate removes the proposed tax but quickly phases out tax credits for wind, solar and other renewable energy.

The Senate approved the bill 51-50 as Trump and GOP lawmakers move to dismantle the 2022 climate law passed by Democrats under former President Joe Biden. The bill now moves to the House for final legislative approval.

The excise tax on solar and wind generation projects was added to the Senate bill over the weekend, prompting bipartisan pushback from lawmakers as well as clean energy developers and advocates.

The final bill removes the tax but mostly sticks with legislative language released late Friday night and would end incentives for clean energy sooner than a draft version unveiled two weeks ago.

Their activities include allegedly taking photographs of a naval base, coordinating a cash dead-drop and participating in efforts to recruit members of the military who they thought might be open to working for Chinese intelligence.

The case, unsealed Monday, is the latest DOJ prosecution targeting what officials say are active efforts by Beijing to secretly collect intelligence about American military capabilities — a practice laid bare two years ago with China’s launching of a surveillance balloon that the U.S. ultimately shot down.

“This case underscores the Chinese government’s sustained and aggressive effort to infiltrate our military and undermine our national security from within,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “The Justice Department will not stand by while hostile nations embed spies in our country.”

The two suspects were arrested. It was not immediately clear if they had lawyers, and a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Tuesday.

The Cuban Volleyball Federation said last week that the team, comprising 12 athletes, a referee and several coaches, had their visa requests denied and will be unable to attend this month’s NORCECA Women’s Final Four in Manati.

The tournament includes Puerto Rico, Mexico and Costa Rica and awards ranking points toward qualification for the Volleyball Nations League.

Cuban coach Wilfredo Robinson said the decision means his team is likely to miss out on the Nations League: “The competition grants points for each match, and at the end it all adds up.”

“It’s really disappointing not to be able to participate in the competition, which is what I’ve been preparing myself for,” player Laura Suarez said.

The U.S. added Cuba to a list of 12 countries with entry restrictions, effective from early June.

The U.S. Embassy said it cannot comment on specific cases due to privacy policies but directives are being implemented to secure U.S. borders and protect communities and citizens.

The Justice Department is ramping up its plans to revoke the citizenship of immigrants who have committed crimes or pose a national security risk, according to a recent memo underscoring the Trump administration’s hardline immigration agenda.

Efforts to identity and go after those suspected of cheating to get their citizenship are not new to this administration.

But the public push is raising concerns from advocates who have accused the administration of trying to use immigration enforcement for political purposes. It is receiving increased scrutiny after a Republican member of Congress suggested that Zohran Mamdani, the New York City Democratic mayoral candidate, should be subject to denaturalization proceedings.

▶ Read more about the denaturalization process and what the Justice Department’s memo means

The legally mandated assessments seem to have disappeared from federal websites built to display them, making it harder for state and local governments and the public to learn what to expect in their backyards from a warming world.

Websites for the national assessments and the U.S. Global Change Research Program were down Monday and Tuesday with no links, notes or referrals elsewhere.

Searches on NASA websites did not turn them up. NASA did not respond to requests for information. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which coordinated the information in the assessments, did not respond to repeated inquiries.

The White House, which was responsible for the assessments, said the information will be housed within NASA to comply with the law, but gave no further details.

Scientists say the peer-reviewed authoritative reports save money and lives.

“It’s critical for decision makers across the country to know what the science in the National Climate Assessment is,” said University of Arizona climate scientist Kathy Jacobs, who coordinated the 2014 version of the report.

▶ Read more about the climate assessments

The Trump administration is withholding more than $6 billion for after-school and summer programs, English language instruction, adult literacy and more as part of a review to ensure the grants align with the president’s priorities.

The move leaves states and schools in limbo as they budget for programs this summer and in the upcoming school year, introducing new uncertainty about when — or if — they will receive the money.

Programs that rely on the funding were expecting it to be distributed July 1, but an Education Department notice issued Monday announced that it would not be released while the programs are under review. The department said “decisions have not yet been made” on grants for the school year.

Marco Rubio disparaged the U.S. Agency for International Development’s work Tuesday, as the Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency took final effect. Rubio ordered the slim wedge of USAID programs that have survived administration cuts absorbed into the State Department.

“Beyond creating a globe-spanning NGO industrial complex at taxpayer expense, USAID has little to show since the end of the Cold War,” Rubio said in a Substack post.

The administration’s new, slimmed-down aid system would cut bureaucracy to respond faster to crises, empower diplomats out in the field at a reduced number of regional bureaus and emphasize U.S. trade, not aid, Rubio wrote.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday targets new administration rules giving millions of people a shorter timeframe to sign up for the Affordable Care Act’s health care coverage.

The rules reverse a Biden-era effort to expand access to the ACA’s health insurance, commonly called Obamacare. The Biden administration expanded the enrollment window, which led to record sign-ups.

As many as 2 million people — nearly 10% — are expected to lose coverage under the new rules.

The mayors of Baltimore, Chicago and Columbus, Ohio filed suit against the health department, saying the rules will result in more uninsured residents and overburden city services.

HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement that the new rules “safeguard the future of the marketplace” and will lower premiums for those who remain in the program.”

“The rule closes loopholes, strengthens oversight, and ensures taxpayer subsidies go to those who are truly eligible — that’s not controversial, it’s common sense,” Nixon said.

The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to ban transgender women from its women’s sports teams to resolve the federal civil rights case, which found the school violated the rights of female athletes.

The U.S. Education Department announced the voluntary agreement Tuesday, part of the Trump administration’s broader attempt to remove transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.

Thomas last competed for the Ivy League school in Philadelphia in 2022, when she became the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title.

Under the agreement Penn agreed to restore all individual Division I swimming records and titles to female athletes who lost out to Thomas, the Education Department said. It also agreed to send a personalized apology letter to each of those swimmers.

It was not immediately clear whether Thomas would be stripped of her awards and honors.

Penn must also announce that it “will not allow males to compete in female athletic programs” and adopt “biology-based” definitions of male and female, the department said.

Rep. Pat Harrigan, a first-term state congressman mentioned often in Republican circles as a potential candidate to succeed the retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, said he would immediately back the president’s daughter-in-law if she enters the race.

Lara Trump said earlier this week that she would consider running. She previously decided to forego Senate opportunities in 2022 in North Carolina, where she grew up, and in 2024 in Florida, where she lives now.

Harrigan said on the social platform X that “there’s lots of excitement around the 2026 Senate race, but let me be crystal clear about something: if ⁦‪@LaraLeaTrump‬⁩ enters this race, I’ll be the first to endorse her and the first to fight for her victory.”

The FBI says it’s moving its headquarters to another Washington location several blocks away from its current home.

The bureau and the General Services Administration said the FBI’s new home would be at the Ronald Reagan Building complex. The FBI’s current Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, was dedicated in 1975.

The decision represents an about-face from plans announced during the Biden administration to move the FBI to Greenbelt, Maryland. Trump administration officials said Tuesday that moving the headquarters to suburban Washington would have taken years and cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

The Reagan building is home to Customs and Border Protection. It had also housed the U.S. Agency for International Development, which on Monday marked its last day as an independent agency. It was not immediately clear when the move will take effect.

A study published in the Lancet medical journal points to the impact that the U.S. Agency for International Development has had, calculating the U.S. agency saved 91 million lives in the first two decades of this century alone.

The study by researchers in Spain and elsewhere was published Monday, USAID’s last day as an independent agency. The Trump administration has fired most of 13,000 workers and terminated most of its contracts, as it pulls back on foreign assistance.

The new study says USAID programs between 2001 and 2001 more than halved deaths from HIV-AIDs, malaria and tropical diseases around the world.
Researchers also projected the deaths expected as a result of USAID cuts and USAID’s elimination: More than 14 million more people dying, including 4.5 million children, by 2030, researchers say.

A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity on a call with reporters, said it wouldn’t be productive for the House to review in a conference committee the tax cut-and-spending bill passed Tuesday by the Senate.

The White House as a practice often provides background briefings to reporters on policy issues in which officials talk on the condition of anonymity.

The official said it wouldn’t be a path to success to do so in a measure that is 85% the same as what the House passed earlier.

Congress often forms conference committees to resolve differences in bills passed by the House and Senate, but the Trump administration is pushing the House to vote directly on the Senate bill in hopes of meeting Trump’s deadline of Friday, July 4 to celebrate its passage.

The president told reporters on Air Force One that his daughter-in-law Lara Trump would be his first choice to replace Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, but she doesn’t live in the state anymore.

It wasn’t clear if he was ruling out his daughter-in-law, whom he picked last year to serve as co-chair of the Republican National Committee, and whether her residency might preclude her from running.

Tillis said Sunday he will not seek reelection next year, an announcement that came after he opposed Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts package.
Trump said he doesn’t know who the candidates will be to run for Tillis’ seat but predicted a member of Congress — without naming which one — might run.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday that “all legislative tools and options are on the table” as Democrats strategize to prevent Republicans from giving final passage to Trump’s big bill.

Jeffries said Democratic leadership would meet Tuesday evening, followed by a full caucus meeting at 6 p.m. He said he expects all members to be at the Capitol this week.

He used especially forceful language after the bill passed the House, saying “this disgusting abomination will set in motion a potential economic death spiral.”

To delay final passage past Trump’s self-imposed July 4th deadline, Jeffries did not rule out invoking a “magic minute,” a rarely used tool allowing unlimited speaking time for leaders after debate has officially ended.

Considerable attention had been given to moderate Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, ahead of the Senate vote on tax break and spending cut legislation. Murkowski voted in favor of the bill.

On Tuesday, she told reporters it is “not a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination,” but said she supported continuing the tax breaks first passed in 2017, as well as the idea of no tax on tips or overtime. She also felt she secured provisions for Alaska around programs such as Medicaid and SNAP that she said were aimed at ensuring people who are vulnerable aren’t made more vulnerable.

But she said there was much more work to do and said trying to rush a bill through Congress for final passage by Friday would be a “mistake.”

House Democrats are chiding Republicans for rushing to get President Trump’s tax and spending cut bill to his desk by Friday for a 4th of July signing ceremony.

Members of the House Rules Committee immediately went to work setting terms for debate on the bill, barely an hour after the Senate approved it.
Rep. Jim McGovern, the committee’s top Democratic lawmaker, said there’s no real deadline for getting the bill passed and the July 4th deadline was an arbitrary marker made up by the president.

“We’re rushing not because the country demands it, but because he wants to throw himself another party,” McGovern said. “This isn’t policy. It’s ego management.”

Rep. Virginia Foxx, the committee’s Republican chair, said Democrats are engaging in fearmongering about the bill and said American’s understand that. She called the bill “the embodiment of the America First agenda.”

Elon Musk’s feud with President Donald Trump has reignited, with the tech billionaire threatening to launch a new political party, and Trump suggesting Musk could be punished for his opposition.

Democratic attorneys general from 16 states have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s termination of grant funding to to mental health programs designed to address counselor shortages in schools.

The $1 billion in grants were part of bipartisan gun control legislation Congress passed in 2022 after the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The money was used to help districts train, retain and recruit mental health workers, particularly in low-income and rural schools.

The Trump administration told grant recipients in April that their funding would not be continued, saying the programs’ efforts to recruit diverse counselors and social workers violated executive orders against diversity, equity and inclusion.

Sen. Rand Paul speaks to reporters outside the U.S. Capitol following the Senate’s passage of Trump’s tax bill.

A federal judge has ruled that the recent mass U.S. Health and Human Services layoffs were likely unlawful and ordered the Trump administration to halt plans to downsize and reorganize the nation’s health workforce.

U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose in Rhode Island granted the preliminary injunction sought by a coalition of attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit filed in early May.

DuBose said the states had shown “irreparable harm,” from the cuts and were likely to prevail in their claims that the “HHS’s action was both arbitrary and capricious as well as contrary to law.”

“The executive branch does not have the authority to order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress,” DuBose wrote in a 58-page order handed down in U.S. district court of Rhode Island.

Her order blocks the Trump administration from finalizing layoffs announced in March or issuing any further firings. HHS is directed to file a status report by July 11.

The House Rules Committee, which sets the terms for how the legislation will be debated, including amendments and length of time for debate, has scheduled a meeting for 1:30 p.m. That’s barely an hour after the Senate approved the measure with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.

The House is returning Wednesday morning and Speaker Mike Johnson reiterated that after the Senate vote that Republicans are “ready to finish the job.”

The House had approved an earlier version of the bill in late May with only one vote to spare. Now, they’ll be voting on the version amended by the Senate.

It could be a difficult vote for some of the GOP’s fiscal hawks. Namely, it is projected to increase federal deficits by $3.3 trillion, nearly $1 trillion more than the House-passed bill.

DeSantis said immigrants in the U.S. illegally should go home on their own, as the Trump administration has been encouraging them to do, and not risk being detained and brought to the Florida facility.

“Why would you want to come to Alligator Alcatraz if you can just go home on your own?” the governor said, using the state’s nickname for the center. The Trump administration has encouraged migrants to “self deport” and preserve the opportunity to come back to the U.S. in the future.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says they can’t ever return if the government deports them.

The facility is being assembled with tents and trailers on top of an existing airstrip, meaning it hasn’t required laying new concrete or constructing permanent new buildings.

DeSantis said people protesting about the potential environmental impact were simply opposed to deportations. Trump said he wasn’t worried either, saying “I don’t think you’re doing anything to the Everglades, you’re just enhancing it.”

The staff at the U.S. Institute of Peace is expected to turn over its headquarters to the Trump Administration, marking the third changing of hands since March.

The initial switch came when the Department of Government Efficiency took over the building –- with the help of the FBI and D.C. police as part of a downsizing effort ordered by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump.

Some of the staff and the Institute’s acting president had regained control in May after District Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled that the institute was not part of the executive branch and therefore Trump did not have the legal authority to fire the organization’s board and acting president.

That also rendered moot the transfer of the headquarters to the General Services Administration, as well as the firing of most of the 300 person staff.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit stayed Howell’s ruling June 27, prompting discussions by the organization to relinquish its headquarters — again. What’s unclear is when the latest handover will occur or who will participate for the government while the appellate panel continues to deliberate over the lower court ruling.

Shortly before Republicans voted to pass Trump’s big bill, Democrats successfully changed the official name of it.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made a point of order on the floor, and the title was struck.

“This is not a ‘Big, Beautiful Bill,’” Schumer said on social media. “It is a BIG, UGLY BETRAYAL.”

‘Today’s vote will haunt our Republican colleagues for years to come’
Republicans “covered this chamber in shame” with passage of their tax bill,
Schumer said in a floor speech after the vote.

He assailed the bill’s projected impact on healthcare, food assistance and the debt, saying, “This is not what the American people want.”

After his speech, the Senate adjourned until next week.

In response to the Senate’s passage of its version of the massive tax package, Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said the “level of blatant disregard we just witnessed for our nation’s fiscal condition and budget process is a failure of responsible governing.

“These are the very same lawmakers who for years have bemoaned the nation’s massive debt, voting to put another $4 trillion on the credit card,” MacGuinea said.

In its Senate version, Republicans’ mega tax bill is set to increase federal deficits over the next 10 years by nearly $3.3 trillion from 2025 to 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Told that some House Republicans have said they cannot support the Senate’s changes to the massive bill, Trump said the measure has “something for everyone.”

“It’s a great bill … and I think it’s going to go very nicely in the House,” Trump said. “I think it’s going to go easier in the House.”

GOP Sen. Susan Collins ultimately voted against Trump’s big bill on Tuesday, but Democrats are arguing she paved the way for its advancement and should be held accountable at the ballot box next year in Maine.

“Susan Collins made the deliberate choice to advance this bill, and she’ll be held accountable for it in 2026,” said Tommy Garcia, spokesperson for the Maine Democratic Party.

Collins of Maine said she voted against the bill because she felt its cuts to Medicaid were too steep, particularly for a poor and largely rural state such as Maine.

Collins is a moderate Republican who is an important swing vote.
She said she does support some pieces of the bill, such as extending tax relief for families and small businesses.

“My vote against this bill stems primarily from the harmful impact it will have on Medicaid, affecting low-income families and rural health care providers like our hospitals and nursing homes,” she said.

Speaker Johnson and House leadership say they’ll immediately consider the package as lawmakers return to Washington late Wednesday.

“This bill is President Trump’s agenda, and we are making it law,” said the GOP leadership in a joint statement.

But the outcome in the House is uncertain. With the slim GOP majority and few votes to spare, they have a narrow path to pass the bill over Democratic opposition

With three Republicans voting no on Trump’s big bill, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski provided a critical yes vote that got Republicans to their required 50 votes. Murkowski called the decision-making process “agonizing.”

“I had to look on balance, because the people in my state are the ones that I put first,” Murkowski said. “We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune called her an “independent thinker.”

“I think that she obviously came to her conclusion,” Thune told reporters after. “I’m just grateful that, at the end of the day, she concluded what the rest of us did.”