President Biden is facing fierce bipartisan backlash over his decision to cancel the planned move of the U.S. Space Command Headquarters from Colorado to Alabama, including from one of his staunchest allies.

Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., released a statement late Monday sharply attacking Biden over the decision, calling it ‘shameful’ and accusing him of bowing ‘to the whims of politics over merit.’

‘This Administration’s decision to keep Space Command in Colorado bows to the whims of politics over merit. Huntsville’s merits won this selection process fair and square,’ Sewell said. ‘In three separate reports, Huntsville reigned victorious, whereas Colorado did not come in second or even third.’ 

‘This reversal is as shameful as it is disappointing. I expected more from the Biden Administration. A decision of this magnitude should not be about red states versus blue states, but rather what is best for our national security. To be clear, the Alabama Congressional Delegation stands united in opposition to this decision,’ she added.

Biden’s decision to cancel the move despite Huntsville separating itself as the clear choice for Air Force leaders to relocate Space Command has fueled accusations that politics played a role. His administration’s ongoing feud with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., over the Pentagon’s funding for abortions has been the main driver of those accusations.

Tuberville responded to the decision by accusing Biden of having ‘inserted politics’ into the debate over whether to move Space Command to Alabama. 

‘The top three choices for Space Command headquarters were all in red states – Alabama, Nebraska, and Texas,’ Tuberville said in a statement. ‘Colorado didn’t even come close. This decision to bypass the three most qualified sites looks like blatant patronage politics, and it sets a dangerous precedent that military bases are now to be used as rewards for political supporters rather than for our security.’  

Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said Biden had consulted with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and senior military leaders before deciding that Colorado Springs, Colorado, will remain as the permanent location of Space Command.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for its reaction to Sewell’s criticism, as well as asked whether its feud with Tuberville contributed to the decision, but did not immediately receive a response.

Having Space Command’s headquarters remain in Colorado Springs, Ryder said, will ensure that the U.S. maintains ‘peak readiness in the space domain… during a critical period.’ 

In addition to Tuberville, Sewell was unanimously joined by her fellow Alabama congressional delegation members, all Republicans, in slamming Biden over the decision.

Rep. Dale Strong, R-Ala., whose district includes Huntsville and would have been home to the new headquarters, said the Biden administration was ‘ignoring what is best for the nation’s security’ and vowed to make it answer for its decision.

‘President Biden has irresponsibly decided to yank a military decision out of the Air Force’s hands in the name of partisan politics,’ Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., said in a statement ‘Huntsville finished first in both the Air Force’s Evaluation Phase and Selection Phase, leaving no doubt that the Air Force’s decision to choose Redstone as the preferred basing location was correct purely on the merits.’ 

‘That decision should have remained in the Air Force’s purview. Instead, President Biden is now trying to hand the Gold Medal to the fifth-place finisher,’ she added.

House Armed Services Committee Chairmen Mike Rogers, R-Ala., echoed Britt, accusing Biden on social media of having the military ‘settle fo fifth-best and call it national security.’

‘I will be continuing my investigation into Biden’s deliberate, political, taxpayer-funded meddling in this decision. This is not over, and Colorado Springs will not be the permanent location for US Space Command,’ he vowed.

Rep. Jerry Carl, R-Ala., also promised not to give up on the Space Command moving to Huntsville while Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., called the decision ‘unacceptable,’ and ‘another broken promise.’

‘It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the Biden Administration has chosen to prioritize partisan politics over national security by rejecting the objectively best location based on the DoD’s own criteria simply because it isn’t a blue state,’ Rep. Barry Moore said in a statement.

Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., called the decision ‘the latest chapter in the long saga of the Biden Administration’s failing national security record.’

Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey joined the delegation in blasting Biden over decision, stating she heard about it in a report from a liberal media outlet rather than the president himself.

‘The White House choosing to not locate Space Command Headquarters in Alabama – the rightful selection – is very simply the wrong decision for national security. The fact that a CNN reporter is who first delivered the news to Alabama should say all,’ she said.

Fox News’ Bradford Betz and Liz Friden contributed to this report.

Republicans and Democrats in the Artificial Intelligence Caucus are proposing the creation of a public research center that will give people and organizations access to the tools they need to create their own AI systems, even if they don’t have access to billions of dollars in research funding.

Lawmakers proposed the ‘Creating Resources for Every American To Experiment with Artificial Intelligence Act,’ or the CREATE AI Act, a bill that would establish the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR). In January, a federal task force called for the creation of this body and estimated it would need about $440 million per year to get off the ground.

The CREATE AI Act doesn’t authorize that specific level of funding, but the bill signals that both parties are interested in establishing the NAIRR in order to ensure entities other than the billion- and trillion-dollar AI developers aren’t the only ones developing this new technology.

‘AI offers incredible possibilities for our country, but access to the high-powered computational tools needed to conduct AI research is limited to only a few large technology companies,’ said Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., the lead sponsor of the bill in the House. ‘By establishing the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR), my bipartisan CREATE AI Act provides researchers from universities, nonprofits, and government with the powerful tools necessary to develop cutting-edge AI systems that are safe, ethical, transparent, and inclusive.’

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said a public research center would ensure that the ‘best and brightest minds in our country’ have access to AI technology and information, which will help spur U.S. innovation and keep the technology moving in the direction of helping society.

‘By truly democratizing and expanding access to AI systems, we can maintain our nation’s competitive lead while ensuring these rapid advancements are a benefit to our society and country — not a threat,’ he said.

The bill, which is also supported by Republicans in the AI Caucus, is aimed at giving students, entrepreneurs and others access to data sets used to train AI and other tools needed to create the most trustworthy AI systems possible. The idea is that NAIRR could gain access to datasets and other tools that have been developed by big AI researchers, although the bill doesn’t prescribe exactly how to acquire those datasets.

A congressional aide told Fox News Digital that there is a growing worry in Congress that the exorbitant costs of developing AI systems mean they are only being developed by large companies with access to billions of dollars. That puts pressure on AI systems to serve a profit motive, but a public center would help ensure that AI systems are developed in a way that serves civic goals.

The aide said a public research center is analogous to the Hubble telescope, which allowed researchers for years to request time to conduct research using that space-based astronomical tool.

Many lawmakers have also called for greater regulation of AI, but the CREATE AI Act doesn’t set up NAIRR as a regulatory body.

‘There is no regulatory component to the NAIRR as described in the legislative proposal,’ a spokesman for Heinrich told Fox News Digital. ‘The NAIRR will be a technical resource primarily supporting AI researchers.’

But the spokesman acknowledged that NAIRR could eventually support policymakers as they work to develop best practices for trustworthy AI.

Regarding cost, the Heinrich spokesman said the legislation shouldn’t be read as an endorsement of the $440 million estimate put out by the task force that studied the idea. But the spokesman said the task force estimate provides a ‘useful sense of scale’ on the level of spending that will be needed to get the program off the ground.

Actual funding levels for the bill would likely be handled in the regular appropriations process. The bill has to first become law, and a congressional aide on the House side said they are in touch with the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee to move the bill ahead, but no plans were set to consider the bill before lawmakers left for the August break.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis invited Vice President Kamala Harris to his state to discuss its new educational curriculum after the vice president claimed students will be taught slaves in the U.S. benefited from slavery.

In a letter sent Monday, DeSantis, who is seeking his party’s nomination in the 2024 presidential election, touted Florida as the ‘number one state in the nation for education’ and argued he was making record investments in students, teachers and schools.

‘We are committed to teaching truth, not partisan narratives,’ DeSantis wrote, promoting the school choice program. ‘We have rooted out hateful Marxist theories like ‘Critical Race Theory’ from our classrooms. We have eliminated ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ initiatives in school administration and hiring practices. We have, instead, focused on the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, science, civics and history.’

A component of the new instruction on African American history — which discusses ‘how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit’ — has been a point of contention among its critics. 

The new education standards were approved by the Florida Department of Education in July. 

DeSantis said politicians in Washington, D.C., have chosen to ‘malign our state and its residents.’ He said that over the past several weeks, the Biden administration has repeatedly ‘disparaged’ the state of Florida and misinformed Americans about its education system.

‘Our state pushed forward nation-leading standalone African American History standards — one of the only states in the nation to require this level of learning about such an important subject,’ the governor wrote. ‘One would think the White House would applaud such boldness in teaching the unique and important story of African American History. But you have instead attempted to score cheap political points and label Florida parents ‘extremists.’ It’s past time to set the record straight.’

The letter comes after Harris said during a speech in Jacksonville, Florida, on July 21 that middle school students will be taught that ‘enslaved people benefited from slavery’ when discussing the new curriculum.

Harris later doubled down in an interview with ABC News.

‘I don’t think that this is subject to any ideological debate to say that people who were enslaved did not benefit from slavery, period, and I’ll say this also because it almost seems ridiculous to have to say what I just said, that enslaved people do not benefit from slavery,’ she said in the interview. ‘There are so-called leaders, extremists, who are attempting to require in our nation an unnecessary debate with the intention, I believe, to try and divide us as Americans. Stop. Stop.’

DeSantis’ letter offered to meet with the vice president in Florida to discuss the new education standards amid her criticisms.

‘In Florida we are unafraid to have an open and honest dialogue about the issues,’ DeSantis wrote. ‘And you clearly have no trouble ducking down to Florida on short notice. So given your grave concern (which, I must assume, is sincere) about what you think our standards say, I am officially inviting you back down to Florida to discuss our African American History standards.’

The governor said he is available to meet as early as Wednesday but noted that he can be flexible in case Harris was busy that day taking a trip to visit the U.S.-Mexico border, a knock on the vice president as the border czar given the influx of migrants entering the U.S. illegally through the Southern Border.

‘What an example we could set for the nation — a serious conversation on the substance of an important issue! I hope you’re feeling up to it,’ the governor wrote.

DeSantis initially dismissed criticism of the education standards by saying he was not responsible. During a campaign event in Utah on July 21, the governor defended the curriculum but also said, ‘I didn’t do it. I wasn’t involved in it.’

Florida’s education standards have faced bipartisan criticism from some black Republicans over the line about slaves developing skills that may be used for personal benefit. Among the GOP critics are Reps. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and John James, R-Mich., as well as South Carolina Sen. and presidential candidate Tim Scott.

Donalds approved of the overall curriculum on African American history, but urged Florida’s Department of Education to correct the controversial line.

‘The new African-American standards in FL are good, robust, & accurate,’ Donalds said on social media on Wednesday. ‘That being said, the attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong & needs to be adjusted. That obviously wasn’t the goal & I have faith that FLDOE will correct this.’

The governor later attacked Donalds for his criticism of the controversial line of the education standards by saying the congressman was taking the side of the vice president.

‘You got to choose: Are you going to side with Kamala Harris and liberal media outlets or are you doing to side with the state of Florida?’ DeSantis said Thursday during a campaign stop in Iowa.

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Hunter Biden told business partner Devon Archer that the Chinese tycoon who helped them secure a multi-million-dollar venture in the communist state loved him for his ‘last name’ and for always traveling with ‘handsome godlike Aryan men,’ according to emails reviewed by Fox News Digital.

In the 2011 email thread, Hunter bragged to Archer about his relationship with Che Feng, a Chinese business tycoon who they referred to as ‘The Super Chairman.’

The emails show that Feng helped Hunter’s firm Rosemont Seneca Partners and James Bulger’s firm Thornton Group LLC secure their partnership with Jonathan Li’s firm Bohai Capital in order to later launch Bohai Harvest RST (BHR), which is controlled by Bank of China Limited.

The news comes after Archer reportedly told the House Oversight and Accountability Committee in a closed-door interview Monday that Biden, as vice president, had coffee with Li and wrote a college letter of recommendation for Li’s daughter.

The email thread began on Sep 21, 2011, when Michael Lin, the co-founder of Bulger’s Thornton Group, forwarded a term sheet of the joint venture fund with Li to Hunter and Bulger, who is the namesake nephew of Boston crime boss James ‘Whitey’ Bulger.

‘Gents, Rock just sent me the translation of the cooperation term sheet (below and attached) about which Jonathan is now talking to SS in HK. Jonathan will use this (with blanks filled after confirmation with SS) to discuss with us in DC,’ wrote Lin, who has worked with the State Legislative Leaders Foundation (SLLF), a nonprofit that partners with the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, a propaganda group that pushes Chinese Communist Party (CCP) messaging.

‘Good news from Jonathan after his meeting with Super Chairman in HK,’ Lin wrote. ‘We three’s ownership of the fund management co. 20% while Jonathan’s 10%.  (Still very very good for you two and me!)’

Lin quoted Feng as saying he wanted to include other CCP-backed companies in the venture.

‘Super Chairman went: ‘I’m not being greedy even though I commit US$100 million. Actually I’m planning to give part of the remaining 70% to other Chinese big firms which I’m going to invite to join us, companies like China Investment Corp. or that kind of high power companies,’’ Lin recounted.

‘This is surprisingly great for us,’ Lin told Hunter and Bulger. ‘Companies like CIC and the like will of course even enhance our FMC’s profile and credibility and to make the fund pie even much bigger if they ever choose to join and to commit money. Imagine we will be sitting on the same board with CIC or the other Chinese HUGE investment or fund house(s)!!!) Look forward to seeing you two together with Jonathan in DC.’

Hunter then forwarded Lin’s email to Archer, who co-founded Rosemont Seneca Partners, and said the proposal seemed like the windfall they were seeking.

‘Keep this btw us pls,’ Hunter told Archer. ‘But bottom line is if I/ you and me get around 7% of this fund it could be in many ways the end all be all. I dont believe in lottery tickets anymore, but I do believe in the super chairman. See below. I know Michael can be overly optimistic but if we were 20% owners of a CIC super chairman backed fund I think the sky’s the limit.’

‘Wow,’ Archer replied.

‘This is smelling more and more real,’ Archer replied. ‘I do believe in the super chairman as well and i starting to believe this is how things actually do go down on the mainland.  I read the email and will go through the term sheet on my connecting flight.’

Hunter then presented his theory for why Feng favored him. He mentioned that he met Feng through Li, the then-CEO of Bohai Capital, who eventually became the CEO of BHR.

‘Your question- ‘why does Super Chair love me so much?’ is easily answered. It has nothing to do with me and everything to do with my last name (and I bring along very handsome Aryan godlike men wherever I go),’ Hunter wrote.

‘Regardless- if this is for real (moved from 5% to 25% chance) you and I have to have a long talk about how we divide things going forward,’ the president’s son continued. ‘My opinion is that everything I do since we became partners is equally your’s as it is mine. In this instance I clearly would never had met SC if I hadn’t met Jonathan through Michael through Jimmy through you through Chris. Anyway, my point is whatever comes out of this or anything going forward I consider 50/50 btw you and me and we can figure everyone else out on the back end.’

‘Bottom line- when Jimmy and Michael come after us for f’ing up their relationships in Beijing- you are 50% responsible,’ he added.

Feng is the son of a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldier and was previously business partners with Ma Jian, the former vice minister of State Security, which is China’s KGB, the New York Post previously reported.

‘Agreed without hesitation,’ Archer responded to Hunter. ‘We do need to sit down next week and lay out all of the irons on both sides of the fire and plot a course here going forward. We have to think about the future in regards to current cash-flow, longer term cash-flow, wealth creation home runs, etc. and likelihood of success and level of underlying risk for each effort we are undertaking and going to undertake.’

Hunter introduced his dad to Li in December 2013 after he and his father flew to Beijing on Air Force Two, the first son told the New Yorker in 2019. 

Then-Vice President Biden traveled to Beijing due to a scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. During the trip, Hunter arranged for a brief handshake between Li and his father in the lobby of the hotel where the U.S. delegation was staying, and then Hunter met up with Li privately, the New Yorker reported at the time.

Less than two weeks after Biden arrived in China, BHR Partners was registered.

Archer told the House Oversight Committee that Hunter would often put his father on speakerphone while meeting with business partners, two lawmakers said Monday.

Attorneys for Hunter Biden and Devon Archer did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt announced Monday that she is recovering in outpatient care following a hospital visit for a sudden medical scare.

Britt, 41, said she was spending time with her family in Montgomery, Alabama, over the weekend when she experienced a ‘sudden onset of numbness’ in her face. 

‘While with my family in Montgomery this past weekend, I experienced a sudden onset of numbness in my face. I was admitted to Baptist Medical Center South for evaluation,’ she said in a statement.

The first-term senator said doctors determined that her symptoms were ‘a result of swelling of a facial nerve, most likely caused by a post-viral infection,’ she said in a statement.

A specialist from the University of Alabama at Birmingham evaluated her in outpatient care and agreed with the prognosis and course of treatment. 

‘My condition is not life-threatening, and recovery could take several weeks,’ Britt said in her statement. ‘I am grateful for the medical professionals providing excellent care, and my family and I are deeply grateful for your prayers.’

The health scare came shortly after U.S. lawmakers left Washington for its month-long legislative recess. Congress is not expected to return to the nation’s capital until after Labor Day.

The Alabama senator is serving in her first term in office after winning her election in November. She is the first woman to be elected to the Senate to represent Alabama and the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the Upper Chamber.

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They aren’t thrilled with 80-year-old President Biden as their party’s standard-bearer in the 2024 election, but Democrats appear far from ready to cut bait with the president due to his connections to his son Hunter Biden’s expanding legal scandals.

Former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer on Monday told members of the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door interview that the younger Biden included his father on speakerphone while meeting with business associates at least 20 times. The Republican controlled panel is investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings with foreign companies and what, if any, role his father played in those interactions.

The closed-door interview revelations will likely fuel Republican attempts to link the president to Hunter Biden’s business transactions, which could politically wound the elder Biden as he runs for re-election in 2024 to a second term in the White House.

But a Democratic lawmaker on the committee argued that Archer’s testimony does not show that then-Vice President Biden was involved in son Hunter’s business dealings.

‘The witness indicated that Hunter spoke to his father every day, and approximately 20 times over the course of 10 year relationship, Hunter may have put his father on the phone with any number of different people, and they never once spoke about any business dealings,’ Rep. Dan Goldman of New York told reporters on Capitol Hill.

‘As he described it, it was all casual conversation, niceties, the weather, ‘What’s going on?’’ Goldman added. And he emphasized that ‘there wasn’t a single conversation about any of the business dealings that Hunter had.’

Devon Archer’s interview comes in the wake of a whistleblower’s allegations that the FBI and the Justice Department are in possession of an unverified document that claims a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions. And House Speaker Kevin McCarthy recently floated that the Republican majority in the chamber could consider an impeachment inquiry into the president over the unproven claims of financial misconduct.

The president’s approval ratings have been underwater for nearly two years and polls suggest Democrats are anything but enthused with Biden seeking a second four-year term in the White House. But regardless, Democrats don’t appear buying – at least right now – what the Republicans appear to be selling.

Veteran Democratic consultant and pollster Doug Schoen argued in an opinion piece this past weekend that Hunter Biden’s multiplying legal controversies ‘are now Joe Biden’s problems.’ 

But Schoen, a top political adviser to then-President Bill Clinton and on Michael Bloomberg’s unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign, told Fox News Digital on Monday that ‘from what I have seen, there still has been no direct evidence, or even testimony today from Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s former partner, that President Biden was involved in their business dealings.’

‘At this point there is nothing to lead me to say anything about the president’s likely candidacy being impacted by any developments in the Hunter Biden case,’ Schoen emphasized.

Asked if Democrats would look to jettison Biden as their party’s nominee if the president becomes increasing entangled in his son’s legal predicaments, Democratic strategist and communicator Chris Moyer told Fox News ‘no way.’

Moyer, a presidential campaign veteran, scoffed at suggestions that party leaders would consider asking Biden to step aside in 2024, adding that ‘Republicans are always going to try to find something to drum up.’

‘There’s good news about the economy almost every day. That’s what’s going to matter most not just to Democrats but also to key swing voters in the general election,’ he argued.

Longtime political scientist Dante Scala of the University of New Hampshire emphasized that ‘until Democrats are confronted with incredibly solid evidence that the father himself has some wrongdoing in all this, their default is to confine the sins of Hunter Biden to Hunter Biden.’

Hunter Biden’s legal saga and the mounting inquiries come as the battle for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination is heating up, and as Biden faces long-shot Democratic presidential primary challenges from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – the environmental lawyer and high-profile vaccine critic, and scion of arguably the nation’s most famous family political dynasty – and best-selling author and spiritual adviser Marianne Williamson, who’s making her second straight White House run. And progressive activist and professor Cornel West has launched a third-party bid for president that has some in the party nervous he might siphon votes from Biden in November 2024.

‘The Hunter Biden circus is a concern for Democrats if President Biden’s opponents in the primary begin to bang the same drum as Republicans,’ warned longtime progressive strategist and communications consultant Michael Ceraso.

Ceraso, a veteran of Sen. Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign and now-Transportation Secy. Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 White House bid, noted that ‘we have a short-term memory in politics, but Bernie benefited from the allegations stacked against Secretary Hillary Clinton. Her past propelled him to be competitive. Whether West or RFK lean in and step in line with Republicans to propel themselves in the primary is anyone’s guess. But six months of weathering Hunter-related attacks from primary challenges before advancing to the general election is not ideal for the president – especially when he needs to drum up support from voters around the policies the Democrats and his White House passed.’

‘Many Americans – those who are likely to elect to stay home on Election Day, or flip parties based on the candidate and their personality, and not the issues – need convincing that the president deserves a second term,’ Ceraso argued.

North Carolina Republicans say they are closing in on a state budget deal, with top House and Senate leaders acknowledging on Monday an income tax agreement has been reached that would lower rates on individuals more deeply than current law directs.

House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger said that tax changes and many other differences have been worked out after fruitful negotiations late last week.

‘Legislative leaders have made significant progress on the state budget,’ Berger said in a tweet. Raises for state employees and teachers also had been agreed upon, they said.

While other points of dispute remain, Moore and Berger expressed hope that chamber votes on a final two-year spending plan that was supposed to start July 1 can occur by mid-August. A budget’s enactment usually also signals completion of the legislature’s chief annual work session.

Taxes and salaries historically ‘are the kinds of things that have kept general assemblies here late,’ Moore told reporters Monday. ‘So the fact that some of those tougher issues have been worked out bodes well for I would say a more robust schedule’ starting next week, he added.

In separate gatherings with reporters, Moore and Berger declined to provide many details on the tax changes, but said the incremental downward trajectory of the individual income tax rate in state law would fall below the end point of 3.99% currently set for 2027. This year’s rate is 4.75%.

The Senate version of the budget had sought to accelerate the rate reduction over time to 2.49% by 2030. The House proposal would have been more cautious on tax cuts. The legislative leaders said the agreed-upon income-tax cutting provisions would contain some language allowing deeper rate reductions only if the state reaches certain revenue thresholds.

Moore said ‘having appropriate safeguards in place through the form of triggers’ would ensure that lower tax rates don’t cause fiscal `shortfalls.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration has warned that deeper tax reductions beyond what is already in the books could siphon several billion dollars in additional revenues annually in the years ahead, threatening the state’s ability to adequately pay for education.

Cooper will be asked to sign any final budget into law. Republicans seat margins are large enough now that they could override any Cooper veto if all GOP lawmakers are present. And many Democrats also voted for the competing House and Senate versions of the budget approved in the spring.

Neither Berger nor Moore have released salary increase details. The Senate proposal in the spring offered less generous pay raises for state workers and teachers than what their House counterparts offered.

Moore said outstanding budget differences between the chambers include items such as the distribution of water and sewer grants and infrastructure funds to help with economic development projects.

Details still seem murky on what lawmakers want to do about funding a nonprofit organization that would seek to turn research produced at University of North Carolina system campuses into commercial successes, particularly in rural areas.

While Moore said the amount agreed to for the ‘NCInnovation’ initiative is less than the $1.4 billion the Senate sought, Berger said later Monday that no agreement on a spending level had been reached.

There is also currently no language in the consensus budget or in any other separately reached agreement that would authorize potentially up to four casinos and video lottery machines statewide, Moore said.

Legislators have been talking quietly for months about the casino expansion as a way to counter gambling centers opening just over North Carolina state lines, such as in southern Virginia. Berger said he believed a gambling agreement, if reached, would end up in the budget legislation. Moore said any casino or video lottery machine arrangement would need formal support from his chamber’s GOP caucus to advance.

Lawmakers have been largely away from the Legislative Building during July while budget negotiations slowed — giving Democrats fodder to blame the GOP for the delays.

Moore said that recorded floor votes were still expected next week and could include override attempts on several outstanding Cooper vetoes even if a final budget isn’t ready.

It’s possible budget votes may have to wait until later in August just because of the ‘sheer number of things we’ve got to work our way through’ on a spending plan, Berger said.

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FIRST ON FOX – Nikki Haley declared her candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in February. 

However, until now, neither the former United Nations ambassador and former South Carolina governor’s White House campaign, nor the super PAC backing her, had gone up with any ads on behalf of Haley’s 2024 bid.

That changes on Tuesday, as SFA Fund, the Haley-aligned super PAC, launches spots in Iowa and New Hampshire, the states that vote first and second in the GOP presidential nominating calendar.

Since jumping into the 2024 race five-and-a-half months ago, Haley has been spending plenty of time in New Hampshire, Iowa and her home state, which holds the third contest in the Republican primary and caucus schedule.

‘For us, it’s about building trust. It’s about building relationships. It’s about earning support,’ Haley emphasized in a Fox News Digital interview last week.

Noting that many of her rivals have shelled out big bucks to run ads, Haley said, ‘all the other guys have spent millions of dollars. We haven’t spent any because it’s not the time. This is the time you build the relationships.’

Pointing to the start later this month of the Republican presidential nomination debates, Haley emphasized that ‘once the debate starts, that’s when you go and create the traction and get the movement out there. It’s ‘slow and steady wins the race.’ It’s relationships. It’s trust. It’s answering every question. It’s touching every hand. Get used to this face because I’m going to keep on coming back to New Hampshire.’

The spots from SFA Fund, which were shared first nationally with Fox News on Tuesday, spotlight her national security and foreign policy credentials.

‘Nikki Haley fought America’s enemies at the U.N. and won,’ the narrator in the spot running in New Hampshire says. ‘Nikki Haley – tough as nails – smart as a whip – unafraid to speak the truth.’

The commercial also includes footage of Haley from the campaign trail charging that ‘China’s dictators want to cover the world in communist tyranny’ and predicting that ‘like the Soviet Union before it, Communist China will end up on the ash heap of history.’

Mark Harris, the lead strategist for the super PAC, spotlighted that ‘whether it’s a farmer impacted by dubious Chinese trading practices, businesses worried about hacks, or balloons spying on our servicemen and women, Americans can count on Nikki Haley to have their back.’

SFA Fund told Fox News they will spend $6.1 million to run the ad on broadcast, cable and digital in New Hampshire for nine weeks starting on Tuesday. The super PAC is launching a similar spot with a $7 million buy in Iowa, which was first reported in the Hawkeye State by the Des Moines Register.

Former President Trump remains the commanding front-runner in the latest GOP presidential nomination polls, as he makes his third straight White House run. Trump enjoys a large double-digit lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, with Haley and the rest of the large field of Republican candidates mostly polling in the single digits.

When asked about the super PAC’s decision to wait until now to go up with ads, Harris said in a statement that, ‘we are about to enter the second phase of the campaign. It has long been our view that this will be the time for Nikki’s campaign to grow, and it is when our effort will really launch in full.’ 

The Biden administration will begin enforcing a nationwide ban on various types of popular light bulbs Tuesday as part of its aggressive energy efficiency agenda.

Under the Department of Energy’s (DOE) regulations, manufacturers and retailers will be prohibited from selling incandescent and similar halogen light bulbs which represent a sizable share of current light bulb supplies. Instead, manufacturers and retailers must sell light-emitting diode, or LED, alternatives or risk substantial federal penalties.

‘It’s impossible for Democrats to leave us alone. States must fight back,’ Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., tweeted ahead of the ban enforcement.

‘President Biden continues to push liberal fantasies through his weaponized federal agencies,’ Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., added. ‘The Department of Energy should be focused on American energy independence, not on what lightbulbs you can or can’t purchase for your home or business.’

In April 2022, months after first proposing the rulemaking, the DOE finalized regulations prohibiting certain light bulbs over their low energy efficiency levels. According to the DOE announcement, the regulations are projected to save consumers an estimated $3 billion per year on utility bills and cut carbon emissions by 222 million metric tons over the next three decades.

The DOE has warned retailers for months about its light bulb ban enforcement to ensure industry-wide compliance.

‘The lighting industry is already embracing more energy efficient products, and this measure will accelerate progress to deliver the best products to American consumers and build a better and brighter future,’ Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said last year.

While U.S. households have increasingly switched to LED light bulbs since 2015, fewer than half of households reported using mostly or exclusively LEDs, according to the most recent results from the Residential Energy Consumption Survey.

Overall, 47% use mostly or only LEDs, 15% use mostly incandescent or halogens, and 12% use mostly or all compact fluorescent (CFL), with another 26% reporting no predominant bulb type, the federal data showed. In December, the DOE introduced separate rules banning CFL bulbs, paving the way for LEDs to be the only legal light bulbs to purchase.

According to the survey data, LEDs are also far more popular in higher-income households, meaning the energy regulations will particularly impact lower-income Americans. While 54% of households with an income of more than $100,000 per year used LEDs, just 39% of households with an income of $20,000 or less used LEDs.

‘We believe that further regulatory interference in the marketplace is unwarranted given that more energy efficient lighting choices, namely light-emitting diode bulbs, are already available for those consumers who prefer them over incandescent bulbs,’ a coalition of free market and consumer groups opposed to incandescent bulb bans wrote in a comment letter to the DOE last year.

The groups added that estimates of the climate benefits of energy efficiency rules are ‘speculative, assumption-driven, and prone to bias in the hands of agencies with a regulatory agenda.’

The DOE’s rule in April 2022, meanwhile, reversed a Trump administration rule that sought to protect incandescent light bulbs and allow consumers to choose which products they want to purchase. Former President Donald Trump was also personally opposed to LED light bulb adoption, remarking in 2019 that they are often more expensive, not good and make him ‘look orange.’

Environmental groups that opposed the Trump administration’s actions, have cheered the Biden administration for cracking down on incandescent light bulbs. Joe Vukovich, an energy efficiency advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said rules banning inefficient light bulbs were ‘long overdue.’

Meanwhile, over the last several months, the DOE has unveiled new standards for a wide variety of other appliances including gas stoves, clothes washers, refrigerators, dishwashers, water heaters and air conditioners. 

And according to the current federal Unified Agenda, a government-wide, semiannual list that highlights regulations agencies plan to propose or finalize within the next 12 months, the Biden administration is additionally moving forward with rules impacting dozens more appliances, including consumer furnaces, pool pumps, battery chargers, ceiling fans and dehumidifiers.

FIRST ON FOX: House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said Devon Archer confirmed in his appearance Monday that President Biden ‘lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge about his son’s business dealings and was not involved.’

Comer’s comments come after Archer, a former business associate and longtime friend of Hunter Biden, sat for hours before the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door hearing Monday. 

Archer said that Hunter put his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, on speakerphone while meeting with business partners at least 20 times. Archer described how Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell ‘the brand.’

‘Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ that his son sold around the world to enrich the Biden family,’ Comer said. ‘When Joe Biden was Vice President of the United States, he joined Hunter Biden’s dinners with his foreign business associates in person or by speakerphone over 20 times.’

‘When Burisma’s owner was facing pressure from the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the company for corruption, Archer testified that Burisma executives asked Hunter to ‘call D.C.’ after a Burisma board meeting in Dubai,’ Comer continued.

‘Why did Joe Biden lie to the American people about his family’s business dealings and his involvement?’ He asked. ‘It begs the question what else he is hiding from the American people.’

Comer said the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability ‘will continue to follow the Bidens’ money trail and interview witnesses to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens, President Biden is compromised and corrupt, and our national security is threatened.’

Archer’s attorney, Matthew L. Schwartz, the managing partner of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, released a statement Monday following his client’s testimony. 

‘We are aware that all sides are claiming victory following Mr. Archer’s voluntary interview today,’ Schwartz said. ‘But all Devon Archer did was exactly what we said he would: show up and answer the questions put to him honestly and completely.’ 

Schwartz added: ‘Mr. Archer shared the truth with the Committee, and we will leave to them and others to decide what to do with it.’

Comer detailed the ‘key takeaways’ from Archer’s hours-long testimony Monday.

Archer, who served on the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings alongside Hunter beginning in 2014, told lawmakers that the value of adding Hunter to the board was to build the company’s ‘brand.’

Archer, according to Comer, confirmed that then-Vice President Joe Biden was ‘the brand.’

Archer also testified that ‘Burisma would have gone out of business if ‘the brand’ had not been attached to it.’ 

Archer said he believed that Hunter Biden being on the board and the ‘Biden brand’ contributed to Burisma’s longevity, according to Comer’s office, and suggested that people would have been ‘intimidated to mess with Burisma legally because of the Biden brand.’

Meanwhile, Archer testified about an interaction in December 2015, involving Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky and Vadym Pozharski—an executive at the firm.

Archer said Zlochevsky and Pozharski ‘placed constant pressure on Hunter Biden to get help from D.C.’ in getting Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin ousted. Shokin was investigating Burisma for corruption.

According to the source, Archer testified that on Dec. 4, 2015, Hunter Biden, Zlochevsky and Pozharski ‘called D.C.’ to discuss the matter. Archer testified that Biden, Zlochevsky, and Pozharski stepped away to take make the call.

It is unclear if Hunter and the Burisma executives spoke directly to Joe Biden on the matter.

At the time, though, Joe Biden was in charge of U.S.-Ukraine policy for the Obama administration.

A source said that Archer testified that just days later, on Dec. 9, 2015, Joe Biden traveled to Ukraine and made a speech. Biden, during the speech, said the government needed to fix the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office. 

‘This is the most revealing aspect of Archer’s testimony and maybe the most important in our entire investigation so far,’ House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan told Fox News Digital. 

The testimony comes after Fox News Digital first reported on an unclassified version of an FBI-generated FD-1023 form, which contained allegations that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden allegedly ‘coerced’ Zlochevsky to pay them millions of dollars in exchange for their help in getting Shokin fired.

Biden has acknowledged that when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, and at the time, Hunter had a highly lucrative role on the board receiving thousands of dollars per month. The then-vice president threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired.

Biden allies maintain the then-vice president pushed for Shokin’s firing due to concerns the Ukrainian prosecutor went easy on corruption, and say that his firing, at the time, was the policy position of the U.S. and international community.

Comer said that the December 2015 phone call from Biden, Zlochevsky and Pozharski to D.C. ‘raises concerns that Hunter Biden was in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.’

Federal prosecutors during Hunter Biden’s court appearance last week, in which he pled not guilty to federal tax crimes and a felony gun charge, hinted that the Justice Department is investigating Hunter for potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Meanwhile, Comer said that Archer testified that Hunter Biden put then-Vice President Joe Biden on the speakerphone during business meetings over 20 times—despite the White House, and Biden himself, denying ever having been in business with Hunter or having ever been involved.

The phone calls and meetings, according to Archer, included a dinner in Paris with a French energy company and in China with Jonathan Li, the CEO of BHR Partners— a joint-venture between Rosemont Seneca and Chinese investment firm Bohai Capital. BHR Partners is a Beijing-backed private equity firm controlled by Bank of China Limited.

Archer also testified that then-Vice President Biden had coffee with Jonathan Li, the CEO of BHR, in Beijing. Then-Vice President Biden even wrote a letter of recommendation for college for Li’s daughter.

Fox News Digital first reported that Biden wrote the recommendation letter last year.

Other ‘key’ takeaways, according to Comer, included that Archer confirmed Joe Biden was referred to as ‘my guy’ by Hunter Biden.

Archer also testified that in the spring of 2014, then-Vice President Biden attended a business dinner with his son, Hunter, and his associates at Café Milano in Washington, D.C. Elena Baturina, a Russian oligarch who is the widow of the former mayor of Moscow, attended the dinner.

‘Notably, the Biden Administration’s public sanctions list for Russian oligarchs does not contain Baturina,’ Comer’s office said.

The White House reacted to Archer’s testimony Monday afternoon. 

‘It appears that the House Republicans’ own much-hyped witness today testified that he never heard of President Biden discussing business with his son or his son’s associates, or doing anything wrong,’ White House spokesperson Ian Sams told Fox News Digital. ‘House Republicans keep promising bombshell evidence to support their ridiculous attacks against the President, but time after time, they keep failing to produce any.’ 

‘In fact, even their own witnesses appear to be debunking their allegations. Instead of continuing to waste time and resources on this evidence-free wild goose chase, House Republicans should drop these stunts and work with the President on the issues that actually impact Americans’ daily lives, like continuing to lower costs, create jobs, and strengthen health care,’ Sams said.