The food and beverage industry is fighting to kill a bill making its way through the California Legislature that critics argue could negatively impact the taste and cost of some of America’s favorite snacks.

California Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, a Democrat, earlier this year introduced AB 418, legislation that would ban the sale, manufacture, and distribution of products containing five specific and widely used food additives across the Golden State: red dye 3, potassium bromate, propylparaben, titanium dioxide, and brominated vegetable oil. These ingredients, all approved for consumption by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are used in several popular food items, especially candy.

The bill, which initially didn’t include an enforcement mechanism, was recently amended to say a first violation would be punishable by a fine not to exceed $5,000, and each subsequent violation would trigger a fine not to exceed $10,000 — a change that, critics say, means taxpayer money would be allocated to fund ‘candy cops.’

‘They are literally creating candy cops in California. If the whole thing wasn’t so serious it would be hilarious,’ said one candy industry executive who spoke to Fox News Digital. ‘This is not well thought out, and the consequences for business are real and widespread.’

The executive explained that the food industry is focused on lobbying to stop Gabriel’s bill but said it hopes to ‘get to the table’ with advocates supporting the measure to discuss ‘practical and pragmatic perspectives.’ That being said, the executive characterized the legislation as arbitrary and ultimately counterproductive.

‘There’s no scientific basis for this bill. An assemblyman in California with no regulatory expertise was sitting in his office and came up with a list seemingly at random,’ said the executive. ‘All the ingredients are deemed safe and acceptable for food. Banning them has significant consequences within the food industry.’

When asked to elaborate, the executive said that a significant amount of research and development would be required to find a substitute ‘if that’s even a possibility’ and that many of these ingredients relate to ‘function, but function is important to taste and texture.’

‘There are preferred ingredients and flavors,’ said the executive. ‘When you propose to ban some of these, those formulas have to change, which will ultimately matter to consumers.’

The National Confectioners Association recently signed onto a coalition letter with other organizations that represent manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of food and beverages describing how both the federal government and the state of California have several laws and regulations that require removing chemicals from foods, attaching warning labels, and checking alternatives if those food additives are deemed unsafe or expose consumers to allergies. They argue an outright ban would undermine the regulatory review process for various chemicals, including some of these targeted in Gabriel’s bill.

‘The food safety process is active and should be allowed to continue the appropriate review of
these five and all additives,’ the letter stated. ‘Several substances this bill proposes to ban are subject to petitions to these government entities initiated by many organizations supporting this measure. Scientific regulators work through these processes and make determinations to establish recognized safe thresholds. Then, when appropriate and supported by peer-reviewed scientific evaluations, they require additional labels or removal from the market … These regulatory bodies with scientific professionals have responsibility over all food additives, and these scientifically based regulatory processes should be allowed to continue without second guessing their outcomes.’

However, Gabriel had a very different view of the additives, arguing they are dangerous to the health of consumers and a ban would have far less impact on business than critics claim.

‘These five are the worst of the worst,’ Gabriel told Fox News Digital. ‘Each has very well documented scientific links to cancer and other significant heath harm. Plus, all five are non-essential ingredients, mainly used to improve things like appearance of food.’

In 2015, for example, research published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature concluded that titanium dioxide has the potential to accumulate in a person’s bloodstream, liver, spleen and kidneys.

Research from three years earlier links artificial colors to DNA-damaging genotoxicity, and in 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that children who consumed the dye were more likely to be hyperactive and inattentive. 

Gabriel has publicly used Skittles, which uses titanium dioxide, as an example of a product he wishes to change, noting that big name brands have begun removing some of the additives are their own, such as Pepsi removing brominated vegetable oil from Mountain Dew in 2020. He also pointed out that three of the five substances have already been banned in the European Union. 

‘They can’t really say with straight faces that they can’t make these products because companies in Europe making the same products with substitutes, and people are still buying them,’ said Gabriel. ‘It doesn’t feel like an honest argument to me. This bill received bipartisan support in committee, and we don’t believe banning these chemicals will drive up costs to find substitutes.’

The FDA recently concluded that the ‘available safety studies do not demonstrate safety concerns connected to the use of titanium dioxide as a color additive,’ noting studies by the European Food Safety Authority ‘included test materials not representative of the color additive, and some tests included administration routes not relevant to human dietary exposure.’

However, Gabriel argued the ‘real story’ here is that the FDA approval process is suspect and contains loopholes. 

‘I always assumed the FDA was watching our back,’ said Gabriel. ‘But I learned as advocates discussed this issue that most new chemicals put into food go through a loophole where they’re not being independently reviewed.’

The California Democrat said he’s not trying to remove any products from the shelf but rather to ensure the safety of consumers — a point the candy executive wasn’t buying.

‘The thing that’s gotten lost here is the food system in the U.S. is the safest in the world, the envy of world in terms of the rigor of our regulatory system,’ said the candy executive. ‘By and large consumers don’t have to worry about food safety here, unlike other countries. There’s a lot of comparisons to products in other countries but it just doesn’t hold water.’

Gabriel countered that he suspects some of the motivation behind opposing his bill is ‘inertia,’ as the ban would require the food industry to take the time and effort to come up with new recipes and negotiate new contracts.

‘We can still make the food we love but with substitutes,’ he said. ‘The idea is to make these companies make very minor modifications to their ingredients like in Europe.’

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said Tuesday he will not run for Maryland’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2024 despite calls from within his party to enter the race.

Hogan, who served two terms as governor before term limits forced him out in January, said he was asked to run by GOP lawmakers and donors, and even his wife after longtime Democrat Sen. Ben Cardin announced Monday that he will not seek re-election.

‘I’m getting a lot of calls about that,’ Hogan said in an interview on NewsNation. ‘I’m getting called by senators and donors, and I’m getting lots of inquiries from the media, but the thing that surprised me the most was that my wife said, ‘Why don’t you run for the Senate?’ I told her she was crazy. I mean, I didn’t have any interest in being a senator.’

Emphasizing that senators have less influence on Capitol Hill than governors do in their respective states, Hogan reiterated that a U.S. Senate seat does not appeal to him. 

‘The Senate is an entirely different job,’ Hogan said. ‘You’re one of 100 people arguing all day. Not a lot gets done in the Senate, and most former governors that I know that go into the Senate aren’t thrilled with the job.’

The moderate Republican and vocal critic of former President Trump was elected to lead Maryland twice in a reliably blue state. The former governor cited recent polls showing he would have favorable odds to win the election, although he admits securing the victory would be tough in 2024.

‘In a presidential year, it makes it even more difficult,’ Hogan said. ‘But it’s just not something I’ve ever aspired to do.’

‘I’ve just never been interested in the job … it’s not something I’m pursuing,’ he added. 

Last year, Hogan decided not to run against Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen in the 2022 midterm elections despite encouragement from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans. He said at the time that he did not ‘aspire to be a United States senator.’

Hogan said in March that he decided not to run for president in 2024 after considering a run for the White House.

A Republican has not represented Maryland in the U.S. Senate since 1986.

Montgomery County Council member Will Jawando, a progressive Democrat, announced Tuesday his bid to replace Cardin in the Senate. Jawando is the first to announce his candidacy for Maryland’s open Senate seat.

‘I’m running for the U.S. Senate because I believe we can build a shared prosperity in Maryland that lifts everybody up and leaves no one behind,’ Jawando said in his video announcement on social media.

Montgomery County Council member Will Jawando announced Tuesday he is running in the 2024 election to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate, eyeing the seat being vacated by Democrat Sen. Ben Cardin.

Jawando, a Democrat, has served as an at-large Montgomery County council member since he was elected and sworn-in in 2018.

‘I’m running for the US Senate because I believe we can build a shared prosperity in Maryland that lifts everybody up and leaves no one behind. That would be really big,’ he said in a video statement announcing his candidacy on Tuesday.

He is a civil rights attorney and activist, and previously served in the Obama administration as Associate Director of Public Engagement in the White House and as an advisor to Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Jawando also wrote a memoir published last year entitled, ‘My Seven Black Fathers,’ which reflects on his mentorship and service to his community.

As an at-large Montgomery County Councilmember, Jawando pushed for legislation to reduce rent, build more affordable housing and take on racial injustice, he said in his video announcement.

‘There’s a Big Lie in America. But it’s not about Donald Trump or his delusions that he won the election — the real Big Lie, the one you feel every day, that pits neighbors against neighbors, it’s the one that says, ‘For me to do well, you have to do worse,’ that we can’t take care of each other, and still prosper, that if some people get ahead, everyone else has to be left behind,’ Jawando said in the video.

Jawando is the first to announce his candidacy for Maryland’s open U.S. Senate seat.

On Monday, Jawando thanked Cardin for his service to the people of Maryland. Cardin served in the U.S. Senate since 2007 and had been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for the previous 20 years. Before serving in Washington, Cardin was in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1967 until 1987.

‘There are few people in Maryland, let alone the United States Senate, that have delivered more for working families than Senator Cardin,’ Jawando wrote on Facebook. ‘His tireless work has had a positive impact on our community and will be felt for generations of Marylanders for years to come.’

California has joined with law firms and advocacy groups to create a hotline that provides access to information and pro bono services for people who need legal help related to abortion, as the state seeks to become a safe haven for reproductive rights since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta and officials with the Southern California Legal Alliance for Reproductive Justice made the announcement Tuesday, one year since the U.S. Supreme Court draft decision reversing Roe was leaked.

Calling it a ‘dark anniversary,’ Bonta said that in the ensuing year the national legal landscape surrounding abortion has become ‘confusing, and frankly, scary.’

He said the new coalition seeks to put patients and care providers at ease by providing a wide range of legal services to people in places where abortion is restricted — including pro bono representation for anyone facing civil or criminal penalties for seeking, providing or assisting in reproductive care.

‘They aren’t alone. We’re here. We have support. We have resources. We have guidance, we have counsel for you,’ Bonta said at a news conference.

In addition, legal experts will offer guidance about compliance amid shifting restrictions in various states, advice about protecting sensitive health data and support for amicus briefs to advance reproductive rights.

‘Unforgiving abortion bans and the devastating health consequences that follow are galvanizing advocates, providers and law firms,’ said Lara Stemple, director of the Legal Alliance for Reproductive Justice.

Threats of jail time, fines or protracted legal battles have already caused providers to deny critical care and forced patients to turn to unsafe measures, officials said.

The state and the legal alliance will get support from groups including Planned Parenthood, Access Reproductive Justice, the National Women’s Law Center and the University of California, Los Angeles, Law Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy.

The California coalition will align with the Abortion Defense Network, a national nonprofit that provides similar advice, representation and funding to help pay legal expenses related to abortion care, Stemple said.

‘So the network is vast and growing,’ she said. ‘I’m confident that we would be able to connect any abortion provider in any place in the United States with lawyers who would be willing to help.’

Last June, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had provided a constitutional right to abortion. The ruling has led to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

In anticipation of the decision, California and other states led by Democrats have taken steps to protect abortion access. The high court’s decision also set up the potential for legal fights between the states over whether providers and those who help women obtain abortions can be sued or prosecuted.

As he looks around at the actual and potential field of Republican presidential candidates, it appears former GOP Rep. Will Hurd of Texas doesn’t like what he sees.

‘The GOP will continue to lose to Democrats if Donald Trump is the nominee,’ Hurd tells Fox News.

Hurd, a former CIA clandestine officer who was the only Black Republican in the House during his tenure in Congress from 2015 to 2021, is not a fan of the former president, so his criticisms of Trump come as no surprise.

But when it comes to 2024, the former president who launched his third straight White House campaign in November is the overwhelming front-runner right now in the race for the GOP presidential nomination as the field of actual and likely contenders continues to grow, and Hurd is concerned.

‘I’m not satisfied with the field as it stands right now. No one is taking on Trump effectively, or presenting a vision for the future,’ Hurd emphasized. 

Hurd will return later this month for his third visit this year to New Hampshire — which holds the first primary and second contest overall in the Republican presidential nominating calendar — hinting at a potential 2024 campaign.

‘I’ve served my country before, and I won’t rule out the opportunity to do it again,’ he said.

Hurd grabbed national attention last spring during a well-publicized book tour for ‘American Reboot: An Idealist’s Guide to Getting Big Things Done.’ In his book, Hurd urged his party to rethink its style of politics and offered ideas to reform America’s political system and keep the nation competitive against China and other powers. 

In November, the day after an expected red wave turned into a trickle in the midterm elections, Hurd posted an 800-word essay encouraging Americans who were upset with the choice of candidates from the two major parties to become more involved in primary elections — which are often dominated by Democratic and Republican base voters.

‘One of the things that we have to recognize, and the Republican Party needs to come to grips with is that we’ve been losing. I don’t have to tell you that seven out of the eight last popular elections were lost by Republicans. We lost the House in 2018. We lost the Senate and the White House in 2020. We did not take the House back by the margin we should have in 2022,’ Hurd stressed in a recent interview with Fox News Digital in Iowa, the state that leads off the GOP primary and caucus schedule.

Looking ahead to next year, Hurd said that ‘the GOP has an opportunity in 2024 but we need candidates that can appeal to independents and that can appeal to Democrats. They’re wanting that because everybody thinks the country is on the wrong track.’

Hurd said that the voters he’s met with ‘want something bigger than themselves. They want to believe in something. They believe that our best days are ahead of us, and they want someone who recognizes that we need commonsense to deal with these complicated problems in this complicated world we’re living in.’

Asked if he needs to get into the White House race before the first Republican presidential primary debate – a Fox News hosted showdown in August in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Hurd agreed, saying ‘I think anyone running for office, there are key hurdles that have to be met and you have to have organizations and boots on the ground and things like that. Those are all decisions that anybody running for office needs to be able to consider.’

If Hurd runs, he’ll face off against candidates with much greater name ID and much larger campaign war chests – such as Trump, former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who launched her campaign in February, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who’s scheduled to declare his candidacy later this month. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence are expected to enter the White House race in the coming weeks. Also in the race are former two-term Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, as well as entrepreneur and conservative commentator Vivek Ramaswamy and businessman Perry Johnson, who have pledged to pour millions of dollars of their personal wealth into their campaigns.

Asked how he can compete, Hurd told Fox News ‘the person that has the most money doesn’t always win,’ and emphasized that ‘the message matters.’

Hurd spoke with Fox News on the sidelines of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Spring Kick-off, where he and a half dozen other actual and potential 2024 Republican presidential contenders spoke in front of over 1,100 Hawkeye State evangelical voters, who enjoy outsized influence in Iowa’s GOP politics.

Hurd’s upbeat message of unity to the crowd stood in contrast to many of the other speakers — who spotlighted the current political battles over abortion, transgender rights, ‘wokeism,’ and other hot button social issues. 

But Hurd seemed to keep his distance from those issues — which dominate many of the discussions in a Republican Party reshaped by Trump and focused on fighting the left. 

‘If there’s one thing you need to know about me,’ Hurd told the audience. ‘I think America is the greatest country on Earth, and we’re better together.’

EXCLUSIVE – There’s no letup in the Republican push to oust Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia in next year’s elections.

An outside group aligned with longtime Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell is targeting Manchin – arguably the most vulnerable Democratic senator up for re-election next year – with a new ad blitz that claims a bill signed into law by President Biden that the senator heavily supported and helped write ‘could cost West Virginia 100,000 fossil fuel jobs.’

‘West Virginia’s way of life depends on coal jobs. But the purpose of the climate provisions in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act supported by Sen. Joe Manchin was to drive coal plants out of business,’ charges the narrator in a new TV commercial by One Nation, a conservative public advocacy group and the sister organization of the pro-GOP super PAC Senate Leadership Fund.

The narrator in the spot, which was shared first with Fox News on Wednesday, argues that ‘Sen. Manchin’s deciding vote for Biden’s law could cost West Virginia 100,00 fossil fuel jobs. And what did Sen. Manchin get? A pen. Tell Sen. Manchin to stop writing off West Virginia jobs and backing Biden’s liberal climate policy.’

The ad uses a clip of the president, at last August’s signing ceremony for the legislation, handing Manchin the pen he used to sign the bill into law.

The president has touted the Inflation Reduction Act – which aims to curb inflation by reducing the deficit, lower prescription drug prices, and invest in domestic energy production while promoting clean energy – as one of his signature domestic achievements and is expected to heavily showcase the measure in his 2024 re-election campaign.

Manchin opposed an earlier and larger version of the bill and took a leading role in re-working and slimming down the original measure, which he had helped sink. A release from the senator’s office at the time of the legislation’s signing was tilted ‘Manchin’s Inflation Reduction Act Signed into Law.’

Democrats, who passed the $740 billion bill along party lines when they controlled both the Senate and the House, have highlighted that it will lead to more than $200 billion in deficit reduction over the next decade. But Republicans have railed against the law and used it in last year’s midterm elections and now in the 2024 cycle to target vulnerable Democrats who supported the legislation. 

‘The Inflation Reduction Act is bad policy for West Virginia and Joe Manchin was crucial to the law’s passage,’ One Nation president and CEO Steven Law emphasized in a statement to Fox News. ‘One Nation will continue to educate West Virginians about the 100,000 jobs which could be lost due to the climate provisions in ‘Sen. Manchin’s Inflation Reduction Act.’’

The spot by One Nation, which says it will spend seven figures to run in West Virginia, is the second straight ad by the group in two weeks to blast Manchin for his support for the Inflation Reduction Act.

Manchin, a moderate Democrat who is often at loggerheads with his party’s progressive wing as well as with Senate leadership and the White House, has yet to announce whether he will see another six-year term in the Senate in 2024. Once a reliably Democratic state, West Virginia has shifted overwhelmingly red in recent cycles, and then-President Donald Trump carried the state by a whopping 39 points in his 2020 election loss to Biden. 

Manchin in recent weeks has stepped up his criticism of Biden’s leadership and agenda and has declined to strike down chatter he may run for the White House next year as a third-party candidate on a potential No Labels ticket. 

The senator in recent weeks has also ramped up his attacks on the president’s implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act. Manchin last week threatened to join Senate Republicans in voting to repeal the law – which is a major priority of the GOP majority in the House as part of its demands for raising the nation’s debt limit. And Manchin has also recently joined Senate Republicans in backing resolutions that target the Biden administration’s energy and environmental policies. He’s also – in his role as Senate Energy Committee chair – helped sink a handful of Biden nominees.

Manchin’s office has said the senator’s recent objections are due to what he sees as the administration’s altering of the original intent of the landmark measure.

Last week McConnell landed the recruit he was eyeing in West Virginia, as two-term Gov. Jim Justice launched a Senate campaign last week. However, before making it to the general election, the wealthy businessman-turned-politician will have to win what is likely to turn into a combative GOP nomination race with Rep. Alex Mooney, who is backed by the deep-pocketed, anti-tax, conservative outside group the Club for Growth. Verbal shots between Justice and Mooney have already been fired.

Democrats flipped a GOP-held Senate seat in Pennsylvania in last November’s elections, and they currently hold a 51-49 majority in the chamber, which includes three independent senators who caucus with the Democratic conference.

That means Republicans need a net gain of just one or two seats in 2024 to win back the majority, depending on which party controls the White House after next year’s presidential election. 

The math and the map favor the GOP in 2024. Democrats are defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs, including West Virginia and two other red states – Montana and Ohio – and a handful in key general election battlegrounds.

Environmental groups criticized the Biden administration after it recently signaled support for a natural gas pipeline project that Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has aggressively pushed.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm penned a letter late last week to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) members, arguing that the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project would help boost reliable energy for Americans. The administration’s unexpected endorsement of the 303-mile pipeline earned criticism from environmental groups that have loudly opposed the project.

‘Secretary Granholm’s letter is inaccurate,’ David Sligh, the conservation director of Wild Virginia, told Fox News Digital in an email. ‘This destructive project has never been needed and won’t enhance our energy security. It’s not designed to help consumers and it abuses private landowners and our resources. MVP’s investors should quit now and not throw more good money after bad.’

Wild Virginia has challenged the pipeline in court and is among hundreds of climate-focused groups to have advocated in favor of canceling its permits. In August 2022, more than 650 environmental organizations wrote in opposition to a permitting deal that Manchin struck with President Joe Biden that would green-light the MVP project.

Manchin has repeatedly pushed for regulators to approve the project and has sought to include carve-outs for it in large spending packages. 

‘I am concerned to see this support from the Biden administration for a dirty, unnecessary pipeline that would undermine the U.S.’ ability to meet our climate goals and contradict President Biden’s own climate pledges,’ said Patrick Grenter, the director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign.

‘There is nothing natural about the fracked gas that would be transported through the Mountain Valley Pipeline; locking us and our communities into decades of reliance on risky fossil fuels,’ Grenter added. ‘What we should be focusing on is transitioning into clean sustainable energy that would maintain energy reliability and security.’

Equitrans Midstream, a Pennsylvania-based natural gas transmission company, first proposed the West Virginia-to-Virginia pipeline in 2014. The Trump administration issued the original permits for the project in 2017 and reissued permits in early 2021.

However, a federal appeals court ruled in January 2022 that the Trump administration failed to properly consider the environmental impact of the project when issuing the permits following a legal challenge from a coalition of environmental groups led by Wild Virginia. And, in another setback, a federal court ruled this month that a state environmental permit was illegal.

Still, Equitrans announced last year that it expected the pipeline to go into service during the second half of 2023. Federal regulators gave the company until 2026 to complete the project.

‘Energy infrastructure, like the MVP project, can help ensure the reliable delivery of energy that heats homes and businesses, and powers electric generators that support the reliability of the electric system,’ Granholm wrote in her April 21 letter to FERC.

‘Natural gas—and the infrastructure, such as MVP, that supports its delivery and use—can play an important role as part of the clean energy transition, particularly with broad advances in and deployment of carbon capture technology facilitated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act,’ she continued.

EXCLUSIVE: Two Republican members of Congress are demanding answers from top financial regulators concerning the possibility Americans’ financial data may have been, or is at risk of being, exposed to members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through two widely-used stock trading platforms operating within the U.S.

In a Wednesday letter to the heads of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., called on the two agencies to ensure Chinese-linked companies Webull Financial, LLC and Moomoo, Inc. are complying with American laws and regulations when it comes to protecting American consumers’ data.

‘Webull and Moomoo collect highly sensitive personal information from millions of their U.S. customers, including personally identifiable information such as Social Security numbers, mailing addresses, and financial account data,’ Tuberville and Banks wrote in the letter.

‘We write today to once again call attention to the potential danger Webull and MooMoo pose to Americans’ financial and information security, as well as request answers from the SEC on its work to mitigate that threat,’ they added.

According to Tuberville and Banks, Webull and Moomoo are owned by Chinese companies with close ties to Xiaomi and Tencent, two Chinese telecom giants that have reportedly aided the CCP ‘in its efforts to surveil and suppress its citizens.’

The letter also said that Webull employs eight active FINRA-registered representatives who are located in China but are required to comply with all SEC and FINRA rules. However, their presence in China, the letter notes, raises concerns over the ability of those agencies to ensure those rules are being complied with.

It added that allowing Chinese-owned broker-dealers with representatives in China to operate on ‘a level playing field’ with U.S. brokerage firms appeared to be inconsistent with Congress’ bipartisan efforts to obtain access to audit documents of U.S.-listed Chinese companies, something it said Chinese law has prevented.

Tuberville and Banks gave a deadline of May 31 for the SEC and FINRA to respond to the letter. They also sent the letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

In a statement, Tuberville emphasized that communist China is ‘the biggest threat facing our country today.’

‘China doesn’t need a spy balloon to steal our information — they’ve got spies in the smartphones of millions of Americans, harvesting valuable information every second. The United States must protect the personal data of our citizens from falling into the hands of our greatest adversary,’ he said.

A lone Democrat on Wednesday blocked the Senate from passing legislation that would prevent biological males from competing as transgender athletes on girls’ and women’s sports teams at schools and universities.

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act passed the House last week with no support from Democrats, and on Wednesday, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., stood on the Senate floor and asked for unanimous consent to quickly pass the bill in the Senate. Tuberville, who was head football coach at the University of Mississippi and Auburn University, said he started out as a girls’ basketball coach and saw firsthand how important Title IX was in giving girls and women opportunities to play sports.

‘Title IX was just starting to be implemented when I took the job,’ he said on the floor of the 1972 federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding, which is credited for broadly expanding female sports programs. ‘I was there to see its incredible impact it had on young girls all over this country. For the first time, the young women I coached had equal access to facilities, resources and competition.’

‘I saw those hardworking athletes go on to earn college scholarships, start careers and become leaders in their own communities,’ he said.

He warned the Biden administration’s support for allowing transgender girls and women to play alongside biological women is ‘taking a sledgehammer… to Title IX.’

‘A few weeks ago, on Good Friday of all days, Joe Biden’s Department of Education issued a new rule completely reinterpreting Title IX,’ Tuberville said. ‘Biden’s rule says schools cannot ban boys from participating in women’s sports or else they’ll lose their funding.’

‘That means teachers and coaches will have to begin opening their girls’ and women’s teams, fields and locker rooms to biological males,’ he continued. ‘It’s unfair, it’s unsafe and it’s downright wrong. To be honest, it’s moronic.’

Under the House bill that passed last week, educational institutions that receive Title IX funding would not be allowed to permit biological male athletes to ‘participate in an athletic program or activity that is designed for women or girls.’ It holds that the sex of an athlete is defined only by their ‘reproductive biology and genetics at birth.’

But when Tuberville called on the Senate to pass the House bill by unanimous consent, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, objected on behalf of her party and said the bill would block people from participating in sports ‘consistent with their gender.’

‘They continue to hurl insulting lies about transgender girls dominating sports,’ Hirono said. ‘But what is true is that these bans are deeply hurtful to transgender girls, particularly transgender girls of color, girls who are gender-nonconforming, and cisgender girls as well.’

‘This isn’t about supporting women and girls,’ she continued. ‘This is about power and control. My Republican colleagues are obsessed with controlling women’s bodies and our lives, as we are seeing today.’

‘We shouldn’t be banning anyone from playing sports, we should be fighting the discrimination that all women and girls — trans, cis or otherwise — continue to face athletics, in the classroom and in the workplace,’ Hirono added. ‘For these reasons, I object.’

That objection is a sign Senate Democrats will never consider the bill and will not schedule it at all for debate in the upper chamber. Hirono’s argument mirrored comments heard in the House debate, when Democrats accused Republicans of ‘bullying’ transgender students by looking to ban their participation in school sports.

But Republicans say Democrats are destroying women’s sports by allowing males to compete on their teams. The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., said Democrats are ignoring the obvious differences between men and women ‘in worship to their trans idols’ and has said Congress needs to act to ‘save women’s sports’ — arguments that Tuberville echoed in the Senate.

‘Males have 40 to 50 percent greater upper body strength and 20 to 40 percent [greater] lower body strength. It’s dangerous to put them on the same field with women,’ Tuberville said of transgender women athletes.

‘This is basic biology. But what did we see from the party of science last week? Exactly zero Democrats in the House voted for this bill in the House,’ he said. ‘Zero. The party of science seems to have skipped biology class.’

Tuberville added that by his count, 28 championships have been ‘taken away from girls and women at the hands of biological males.’

While Senate Democrats are unlikely to consider the bill again, Tuberville said the call for unanimous approval of the House legislation will help Americans ‘find out where the Senate Democrats stand.’

‘Americans do not want the federal government footing the bill for a policy that is a slap in the face to women who have worked so hard in the field of athletics,’ he said. ‘It’s time to act before the situation gets worse.’

Indiana’s new state budget will expand eligibility for its private school voucher program to higher earners and speed up planned income tax rate cuts under a deal announced Wednesday by Republican legislative leaders.

Senate Republicans had resisted both House-backed moves but they were included in the budget agreement after an updated tax revenue report released last week showed the state is projected to collect about $1.5 billion, or 2.5% more than previously expected through July 2025.

Republican leaders said the budget deal increases K-12 school funding by nearly $1.2 billion, or 8%, over the budget’s two years. The voucher expansion, however, could take up more than $500 million of that amount by raising the family income limit and lifting other restrictions on qualifying for state money toward private school tuition.

Supporters of the voucher expansion argue it empowers parents to decide which school is best for their children. The plan raises the voucher income limit for a family of four from the current $154,000 to $220,000.

Democratic Rep. Greg Porter criticized the voucher expansion as a ‘despicable’ step that will leave traditional school districts with funding increases below the inflation rate while benefiting well-off families.

The budget deal also includes speeding up individual income tax rate cuts approved a year ago. Under the plan, the tax rate would decline in small steps from the current 3.15% to 2.9% in 2027 — two years earlier than currently scheduled.

The budget agreement comes as the Republican-dominated Legislature faces a deadline to conclude this year’s session by the end of this week.