Page 16 - Us Government

US agriculture dept tries to rehire fired workers tied to bird flu response

The Agriculture Department is scrambling to rehire several workers who were involved in the US government's response to the ongoing bird flu outbreak that has devastated egg and poultry farms over the past three years. The workers were among the thousands of federal employees eliminated on the recommendations of billionaire Elon Musk 's Department of Government Efficiency that is working to carry out Trump's promise to streamline and reshape the federal government. Republican Rep Don Bacon said the administration should be more careful in how it carries out the cuts. "While President Trump is fulfilling his promise to shed light on waste, fraud, and abuse in government, DOGE needs to measure twice and cut once. Downsizing decisions must be narrowly tailored to preserve critical missions," said Bacon, who represents a swing district in Nebraska. The bird flu outbreak has prompted the slaughter of roughly 160 million birds to help control the virus since the outbreak began in 2022. M

Elon Musk not a DOGE employee, cannot fire employees: White House

Since the start of Donald Trump's second term last month, Elon Musk-led DOGE has undertaken an aggressive effort to cut costs across federal agencies

Trump admin wants SC to permit firing of whistleblower agency head

The Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to permit the firing of the head of the federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers, according to documents obtained on Sunday that would mark the first appeal to the justices since President Donald Trump took office. The emergency appeal is the start of what probably will be a steady stream from lawyers for the Republican president and his administration seeking to undo lower court rulings that have slowed his second term agenda. The Justice Department's filing obtained by AP asks the conservative-majority court to lift a judge's court order temporarily reinstating Hampton Dellinger as the leader of the Office of Special Counsel. Dellinger has argued that the law says he can only be dismissed for problems with the performance of his job, none of which were cited in the email dismissing him. The petition was filed hours after a divided appeals court panel refused to lift the order on procedural grounds. The case is not ...

DOGE nixes $21 million US grant to increase India's 'voter turnout'

The project in India was one of several across the world, including in Nepal and Bangladesh, funded by the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening

Thousands fired in US govt as Donald Trump, Musk purge federal employees

Trump and Tesla CEO Musk's overhaul of the federal government appeared to be widening as Musk aides arrived for the first time at the federal tax-collecting agency

Senators introduce bill to designate Denali as North America's tallest peak

Alaska's Republican US senators have introduced legislation seeking to designate North America's tallest peak as Denali weeks after President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for the name to revert to Mount McKinley. US Sen Lisa Murkowski, in a statement Thursday, said that in Alaska, the peak is Denali. Once you see it in person and take in the majesty of its size and breathe in its cold air, you can understand why the Koyukon Athabascans referred to it as The Great One.' This isn't a political issue - Alaskans from every walk of life have long been advocating for this mountain to be recognised by its true name, she said. The bill introduced by Murkowski is co-sponsored by Alaska Sen Dan Sullivan, whose wife is Athabascan. Trump on his first day in office last month signed an executive order to rename the iconic 20,310-foot (6,190-metre) mountain in Denali National Park and Preserve for McKinley, saying a 2015 decision by the Obama administration to recognise the pe

Donald Trump's birthright citizenship order piling up losses in court

Trump's order already had been blocked in parallel cases in Seattle, Maryland and New Hampshire, including by one judge who called the directive 'blatantly unconstitutional'

Brics is dead, says Trump as he threatens member nations with 100% tariff

Earlier in January, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Brics nations if they try to introduce alternative currency to the US Dollar

Trump wants denuclearisation talks with Russia, China to cut defence budget

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he wants to restart nuclear arms control talks with Russia and China and that eventually he hopes all three countries could agree to cut their massive defense budgets in half. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump lamented the hundreds of billions of dollars being invested in rebuilding the nation's nuclear deterrent and said he hopes to gain commitments from the US adversaries to cut their own spending. There's no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons, we already have so many, Trump said. You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they're building nuclear weapons. We're all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually, hopefully much more productive," Trump said. While the US and Russia hold massive stockpiles of weapons since the Cold War, Trump predicted that China would catch up in their capability to exact

PM Narendra Modi meets Indian-origin entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy

PM Modi discusses innovation and biotechnology

'Remove roots of the weed': Elon Musk wants US govt to cut entire agencies

Elon Musk's DOGE aims to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, largely by eliminating agencies deemed inefficient or unnecessary

Trump may revive 1930 trade discrimination law for reciprocal US tariffs

Trump has said the new US tariff rates would take effect "almost immediately," and Section 338 of the Trade Act of 1930 would give him a quick path to imposing them

US CFPB likely terminates some probationary staff due to inefficiency

The removal is a possibility as White House asked agencies for lists of probationary employees and recommendations on whether they should stay- a move by administration to neutralize CFPB

White House plans to nominate new chiefs for bank, market regulators

White House intends to nominate Jonathan Gould as the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Brian Quintenz as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Elon Musk, other Trump allies ratchet up a rhetoric against US judiciary

Musk took to his X social media platform to attack the judge who ordered US health agencies to temporarily restore websites they took offline in response to an executive order by Trump

US cyber agency puts poll security staffers who worked with states on leave

Staffers at the nation's cybersecurity agency whose job is to ensure the security of U.S. elections have been placed on administrative leave, jeopardizing critical support provided to state and local election offices across the country. In recent days, 17 employees of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who have worked with election officials to provide assessments and trainings dealing with a range of threats from cyber and ransomware attacks to physical security of election workers have been placed on leave pending a review, according to a person familiar with the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly. Ten of those employees are regional election security specialists hired as part of an effort to expand field staff and election security expertise ahead of the 2024 election. The regional staffers were told the internal review would examine efforts to combat attempts by foreign governments to influence US elections, duties that were assigned to othe

Billionaire Trump says time's up for lowly US 'penny', halts production

For many Americans, the coin has become a nuisance that ends up being discarded in drawers, ash trays and piggy banks

No action despite tariffs, serious about Canada becoming 51st state: Trump

President Donald Trump said he is serious about wanting Canada to become the 51st state in an interview that aired Sunday during the Super Bowl preshow. Yeah it is, Trump told Fox News Channel's Bret Baier when asked whether his talk of annexing Canada is a real thing" as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently suggested. I think Canada would be much better off being the 51st state because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada. And I'm not going to let that happen," he said. "Why are we paying $200 billion a year, essentially a subsidy to Canada? The US is not subsidizing Canada. The US buys products from the natural resource-rich nation, including commodities like oil. While the trade gap in goods has ballooned in recent years to $72 billion in 2023, the deficit largely reflects America's imports of Canadian energy. Trump has repeatedly suggested that Canada would be better off if it agreed to become the 51st US state a prospect that is deeply unpopular among ...

Elon Musk dodges DOGE scrutiny while expanding his power in Washington

Elon Musk made a clear promise after Donald Trump decided to put him in charge of making the government more efficient. It's not going to be some sort of backroom secret thing, Musk said last year. It will be as transparent as possible," maybe even streamed live online. It hasn't worked out that way so far. In the three weeks since the Republican president has been back in the White House, Musk has rapidly burrowed deep into federal agencies while avoiding public scrutiny of his work. He has not answered questions from journalists or attended any hearings with lawmakers. Staff members for his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have sidelined career officials around Washington. It is a profound challenge not only to business-as-usual within the federal government, which Trump campaigned on disrupting, but to concepts of consensus and transparency that are foundational in a democratic system. Musk describes himself as White House tech support, and he has embedd

US spending Bill in limbo as differences between Republicans-Democrats rise

Before President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress can enact much of their legislative agenda, they have to deal with some unfinished business completing work on the current budget year's spending bills. It's a task that by all accounts is not going well. The current stopgap measure lasts through March 14. After that, without congressional action, there would be a partial government shutdown. Five weeks is an eternity when it comes to resolving spending bills in Washington. But Trump's first weeks in office have escalated tensions between the two parties as the new administration reshapes agency priorities and dismantles existing programs without congressional approval. A look at where the talks stand: Republicans accuse Democrats of abandoning negotiations Republican and Democratic leaders of the two appropriations committees in Congress were holding spending bill talks in late January; aides said the two sides were committed to getting a deal done. But optimism has faded