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The House voted Wednesday to repeal President Biden’s plan to forgo more than $400 billion in federally backed student loan debt.

Lawmakers approved a resolution disapproving of Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan that was announced last year and is now stalled because of an ongoing legal challenge. The Supreme Court is expected to consider the legality of Biden’s plan later this summer.

On Wednesday, lawmakers voted 218-203 in an attempt to speed up the process and end Biden’s plan through legislation. Every Republican present voted to pass the resolution, along with just two Democrats.

During floor debate, Democrats argued that voting to end Biden’s plan would hurt the roughly 13% of Americans who are likely to qualify for loan forgiveness.

‘At a time when students need relief the most, Republicans are working to upend student loan forgiveness that started under Trump and now continues under President Biden for more than 40 million borrowers,’ said Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif.

‘Why for the love of God do Republicans want to continue to punch down on America’s students and divide our country?’ he asked. ‘The Biden administration’s student debt relief plan is not a bailout, it is a lifeline, and I implore my Republican colleagues in Congress to speak with borrowers in their own districts about this very issue.’

Another Democrat, Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida, argued that Republican opposition to Biden’s plan was based on the argument that most Americans don’t need loan repayment aid, and said by that logic, women and Black people would never have been allowed to vote.

‘Why do you bring that bigoted logic to this issue?’ he asked. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., asked for those politically charged words to be stricken from the record, and they were removed.

Republicans rejected Democrats’ arguments by saying Biden has no legal authority to wipe away hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt.

‘In fact, he even admitted that to CNN host Anderson Cooper in February 2021 by saying, ‘I don’t think I have the authority to do it by signing with a pen,’’ said Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., the sponsor of the resolution.

Foxx argued that Biden’s plan only helps the wealthy, going against the Democrats’ progressive values.

‘Student loan cancelation is regressive,’ she said. ‘Two-thirds of this debt transfer plan would go to the top half of earners. It takes from those in the lower half and gives to the upper half.’

She added that the loan repayment pause that was instituted during the COVID pandemic resulted in a de facto $65,000 loan cancelation for the average lawyer.

‘This is a professional class bailout,’ she said. ‘More specifically, it is a professional class, graduate degree-holder bailout.’

Biden announced last summer that he would cancel up to $10,000 in student loans for people making less than $125,000, and up to $20,000 for students who received Pell Grants. That program was expected to cost the government more than $400 billion in lost debt repayment, but the program was put on hold after a court blocked it.

Good’s resolution was written under the Congressional Review Act, which lets Congress reject an executive branch policy as long as both the House and Senate pass a resolution disapproving of that policy. House passage sends it to the Senate, where it’s highly unlikely to win approval.

If it could be approved in the Senate, the White House said this week that Biden would veto it.

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Democrat North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a ‘state of emergency’ this week in an attempt to prevent a school choice bill from passing the state legislature, despite sending his own daughter to a private school in Raleigh.

Announcing the move in a video message released Monday, Cooper said the state of public education is ‘no less important’ than other emergencies.

‘It’s time to declare a state of emergency for public education in North Carolina. There’s no executive order like with a hurricane or the pandemic, but it’s no less important,’ Cooper said. ‘It’s clear that the Republican legislature is aiming to choke the life out of public education. I’m declaring this state of emergency because you need to know what’s happening. If you care about public schools in North Carolina, it’s time to take immediate action and tell them to stop the damage that will set back our schools for a generation.’

Cooper, highlighting efforts from Republicans in the state as a ‘private school voucher scheme,’ said the North Carolina he knows ‘was built on support for public schools’ and insisted that more money should be geared toward public schools and teacher pay raises.

The comments from Cooper come after he sent at least one of his three daughters to Saint Mary’s School, an expensive private school in Raleigh, according to A.P. Dillon, a reporter for the North State Journal.

‘In terms of folks being able to send their kids to the private school of their choice using an Opportunity Scholarship, it’s worth remembering Cooper sent one of his daughters to St. Mary’s, a private school with hefty tuition cost,’ Dillon wrote in a tweet last month.

Furthermore, Cooper’s daughter, Natalie, was recognized as being a graduate from the college-preparatory, boarding and day school in a press release from the institution in 2017.

‘The Coopers have three daughters, Hilary, Claire, and Natalie, a 2011 Saint Mary’s graduate,’ the school wrote in a press release to announce that North Carolina first lady Kristin Cooper would serve as its 2017 commencement speaker.

Cooper faced immediate criticism from social media users and school choice advocates for his remarks about public schools in the state while sending his own child to a private school.

Jason Williams, executive director of the NC Faith and Freedom Coalition, was quick to call out Cooper’s remarks in a tweet.

‘Why doesn’t Roy Cooper want your child to have the same quality, private education his kid had?’ Williams wrote. ‘If he believed so much in public education, why did he spend thousands for his own kid to avoid it?’

Expounding on his comments, Williams told Fox News Digital, ‘We support Gov. Cooper and anyone else having the freedom and responsibility as parents to do whatever they feel is in the best interest of their children. We simply believe that every parent in North Carolina should be given that same opportunity.’

‘We do have a state of emergency with our public school system. The problem with Gov. Cooper’s state of emergency is the focus is on the wrong thing,’ he added. ‘The true emergency is the leftist attempts to indoctrinate our children and the failure to adequately educate them.’

Similarly, school choice advocate Corey DeAngelis wrote in a tweet, ‘This hypocrite sent his own kid to a private school. We’re freeing families from the clutches of the teachers unions once and for all & there’s nothing he can do about it.’

‘What a hypocrite. Public schools aren’t good enough for his kids, but they are for yours,’ Independent Women’s Forum senior policy analyst Kelsey Bolar blasted.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Sam Chan, Cooper’s press secretary, said, ‘Two of his daughters spent their entire educations in public school and another attended public schools except for the last four years in a private school.’

‘This isn’t about whether kids should go to private schools, it’s about whether taxpayers should foot the bill at the expense of public schools,’ Chan added.

In April, Republican lawmakers in North Carolina announced efforts to move forward with education reform bills that promote school choice. One measure, Senate Bill 406, would provide equal funding to charter school students along those who attend public school. Critics, such as Cooper, said the bill mostly serves to cut funding for public schools.

The measures by state Republicans followed the announcement by state Rep. Tricia Cotham that she would be defecting from the Democratic Party to join the GOP. Her decision, she said at the time, came from her support for school choice.

‘On issues like school choice, like charters, we have to evolve,’ Cotham said. ‘One-size-fits-all in education is wrong for children … [Democrats] didn’t really want to talk about children. They had talking points from adults and adult organizations.’

Fox News’ Lindsay Kornick contributed to this article.

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FIRST ON FOX: Pro-lifers rejoiced as Planned Parenthood announced it would be cutting up to 15 percent of its national office staff to fund non-abortion care in pro-life states.

On Tuesday, Planned Parenthood said they would be laying off between 10% to 15% of their over 700 employees in June, with the layoffs affecting possibly 100 employees.

The funding from the firings will be used to fund non-abortion services in pro-life states with abortion bans, such as sexually transmitted disease testing, cancer screenings, contraception and gender surgery.

Pro-lifers rejoiced at the Planned Parenthood staffing cuts after the abortion advocacy organization announced its upcoming layoffs.

Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser told Fox News Digital it’s ‘no coincidence that while popular pro-life protections, that save lives, gain momentum in states like North Carolina, South Carolina and Nebraska we are seeing cutbacks and layoffs impacting Planned Parenthood.’

‘The nation’s largest abortion business is forced to downsize to protect their bottom line,’ Danenfelser said. ‘Meanwhile, compassionate pro-life measures, that match the will of the people, advance in states across the country.’

‘Those measures include millions of dollars in compassionate care for mother and child in need of financial and physical resources,’ she added.

March for Life Education and Defense Fund president Jeanne Mancini told Fox News Digital ‘March for Life is heartened to see strong pro-life momentum building across the country as states continue to re-affirm the humanity and dignity of the unborn child, and enact commonsense protections for innocent human life.’

‘Abortion giant Planned Parenthood’s recent move to cut staff from their national office and reallocate funds to its state affiliates is indicative of the changing culture in which more and more Americans have awakened to see the beauty of unborn life, the horrors of abortion, and the need to stand up in states around the country to protect our nation’s most vulnerable,’ she continued.

Planned Parenthood’s planned June layoffs and shift in funding to non-abortion services shows the abortion organization is having to shift gears since the Dobbs Supreme Court decision last year overturned Roe v. Wade.

The pro-life movement has been gaining momentum in the wake of the historic Dobbs decision.

Earlier this month, hundreds of pro-life Mainers flocked to the state legislature for a 20-hour marathon hearing to testify against a new abortion bill removing most limitations on abortion.

Other state legislatures across America have taken up pro-life legislation, with the South Carolina House passing a fetal heartbeat bill on Tuesday that would change the state’s current 20-week abortion law.

South Carolina’s heartbeat bill needs to pass the Senate before it’s sent to the governor’s desk.

The GOP-controlled North Carolina state legislature on Tuesday overrode Democrat Governor Roy Cooper’s Mother’s Day weekend veto of a 12-week abortion ban, putting the bill into law.

Additionally, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen, a Republican, signed into law a state abortion ban at 12 weeks as well as a restriction on sex change surgeries for people under 19 years old.

Each of the state legislatures’ pro-life bills have exceptions for rape, incest, and danger to the life of the mother.

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It appears very unlikely there is any chance to get a deal on the debt ceiling over the next couple of days.

If that’s the case, the House likely cuts the rank-and-file members loose tomorrow for the Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day is one of the most important periods for lawmakers to be back in their districts (parades, events, et al). But lawmakers will be on standby to race back to Washington. The House is SCHEDULED to be OUT of session next week. The Senate is out this week, but SCHEDULED to return next week.

The calendar may read May. But in reality, the LEGISLATIVE calendar reads June.

Negotiators will likely stay in Washington and talk over the weekend.

There is nothing which will infuriate lawmakers any more than having to be in Washington with nothing to vote on. Also, if conservatives don’t get the deal they want or don’t like where things are headed, keeping Members away from one another actually helps. That tamps down potential dissent. 

That said, it may help count the votes if everyone is present in DC.

Once a deal is cut, it will take a day or two to get the bill into proper legislative form. 

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., says he will adhere to the ’72 hour rule’ for Members to consider the bill (purportedly in final form) before the House debates and voted on the bill. But that will also buy some time for the bill to be scored and evaluated by the Congressional Budget Office. Some lawmakers may wait to decide to vote yes or no based on the CBO score. 

It may also take a day or two to ‘whip’ the vote to know where members stand and if they have they the votes to pass the bill. 

Inevitability, there will be other hiccups which could slow down the process.

And we have not even discussed how long it will take the Senate to move the bill. The Senate could take five to seven days once it gets the bill from the House. However, if the Senate got agreement among all 100 senators, it could move VERY fast.

Any bill is going to require a special cocktail of Democratic and Republican votes – perhaps well over 100 Democrats. If that’s the case, the bill must reflect Democratic priorities. But are Republicans willing to absorb a hit which eliminates some of their goals. That’s the risk to McCarthy. How does he finesse this politically so some GOPers don’t rebel.

We are seeing McCarthy speak multiple times a day now before cameras and as he comes and goes from his office. Keep an eye on this. The more McCarthy speaks, the worse shape the talks are in. If they have a deal, the theory goes, McCarthy would speak less.

McCarthy is speaking more often publicly now to gin up his base, keep his members in line and fill the vacuum.

Bottom line: we don’t truly know exactly when the U.S. will collide with the debt ceiling. But the chances of working out a deal, let alone voting – in the House alone – probably gets this to the edge of June if not a few days into June.

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FIRST ON FOX: Texas Rep. Lance Gooden, a Republican, led a letter with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and committee colleague Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., to the CEO of United Way Worldwide (UWW) demanding answers on federal grant money reportedly going to free services for illegal immigrants.

The Republicans sent the letter to UWW President and CEO Angela Williams regarding the reports of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) using federal grant money to give illegal immigrants free food, services, shelter and transportation.

The lawmakers wrote the U.S. ‘is experiencing the worst border crisis in our nation’s history’ as a ‘direct result’ of President Biden and his administration’s ‘actions.’

Gooden, Jordan and McClintock cited the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) over 5 million illegal immigrant encounters since Biden took office and the release of nearly 2 million illegal immigrants ‘pursuant to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy.’

‘A major cause of this crisis is the incentive created by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) using DHS grant funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),’ the lawmakers wrote. ‘United Way Worldwide is the designated charity to execute funding decisions made by the National Board for the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP).

‘While Americans suffer the consequences of chaos at the southwest border caused by the Biden Administration, the United Way and dozens of local charities and governments are receiving millions of taxpayer dollars to provide free food, lodging, and transportation for illegal aliens to be released anywhere they want in the United States.’

The Republicans noted that, according ‘to FEMA guidance, federal funding can even be awarded without any documentation or receipts’ and warned that, amid ‘this crisis, there is also an increased risk of fraud, misuse, and abuse of funds because, due to current policies, FEMA is unable to ensure that humanitarian relief funds are not being wasted.’

The lawmakers demanded that UWW turn over documents and information regarding a trove of topics, including the ‘total dollar amount in grants and contracts organizations have received (separated by funding source) from federal, state, and local government agencies.’

It also seeks a ‘list of affiliates that are providing assistance to foreign nationals outside the United States who are traveling to the United States without authorization allowing them to be admitted, and the dollar amounts each affiliate or subrecipient has received from your organization to provide such assistance.’

UWW did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The lawmakers’ latest letter comes after they sent correspondence to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas seeking information, communications and documents related to federal funding awards to NGOs for food, lodging and transportation of migrants since January 2021. In the letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, the lawmakers note the ongoing crisis at the southern border, which is now into its third year. 

 

Gooden, Jordan, McClintock … by Houston Keene

The crisis has been exacerbated in recent days by the expiration of the Title 42 public health order. Agents have encountered over 10,000 migrants a day across multiple days.

In anticipation of that shift, DHS announced that more funding to NGOs, including an allocation of $332 million via the Emergency Food and Shelter Program to ‘assist communities receiving noncitizens released from custody as they await the outcome of their immigration proceedings.’

Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed reporting.

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Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos is speaking out after the long-anticipated report from Special Counsel John Durham revealed he repeatedly denied any possible collusion well before the FBI opened its doomed Trump-Russia investigation.

Durham’s report last week determined that the FBI opened its years-long ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ investigation into alleged collusion between former President Trump and the Kremlin based on ‘raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence,’ and that it ‘reflected a noticeable departure from how it approached prior matters involving possible attempted foreign election interference plans aimed at the Clinton campaign.’

On page 252 of the report, Durham claimed the FBI recorded meetings between Papadopoulos and undercover employees, and that Papadopoulos repeatedly denied any Russian assistance to the Trump campaign, saying such activity would be ‘illegal’ and ‘treason.’

Papadopoulos also made repeated denials about the campaign’s involvement with the WikiLeaks disclosures of hacked DNC emails, but his words were dismissed as ‘weird’ and ‘rehearsed,’ the report said. Thus, his denials of collusion were not included in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant applications to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, Durham’s report said. 

Papadopoulos told Fox News Digital the revelation in the report ‘is the primary example of the problems surrounding the FBI leadership in 2016 – and that have continued to the present.’

‘You have a ‘target,’ me, who is explicitly saying that any work or ‘collusion’ with Russia is treason, and that I have no idea what this informant is talking about. Yet, this and other exculpatory information is intentionally withheld from the FISA court so that the FBI can continue their pre-determined plan to sabotage the Trump campaign,’ Papadopoulos said.

‘As Durham stated clearly there was absolutely no basis to launch an investigation, let alone to continue one,’ he added.

Durham argued in his report that while ‘the exclusion of the Papadopoulos statements in the Page FISA application may have been sufficient to meet a negligence standard,’ it was ‘insufficient to bring criminal charges against any FBI or Department personnel.’

During an appearance on ‘Fox News Tonight,’ Papadopoulos hailed Durham’s report as a ‘profound indictment’ on the U.S. intelligence community, telling host Will Cain that ‘heads have to roll’ for putting the country through years of unfounded Trump-Russia collusion allegations.

‘I feel ecstatic,’ he said. ‘My wife and I have been celebrating all day today because this really didn’t just tarnish my image. It also tarnished my wife’s image who really stuck with me through this entire saga from beginning until end, So I’m a very lucky guy.’

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Former President Jimmy Carter is doing well at his Georgia home, where he has been under hospice care for three months, his family said.

Carter, 98, remains in good spirits with former First Lady Rosalynn, 95. The two host members of their family receive updates on The Carter Center’s humanitarian work around the world, and enjoy regular servings of ice cream grandson Jason Carter said.

‘They’re just meeting with family right now, but they’re doing it in the best possible way: the two of them together at home,’ Jason Carter told The Associated Press during an interview Tuesday.

The younger Carter added: ‘They’ve been together 70-plus years. They also know that they’re not in charge. Their faith is really grounding at this moment. In that way, it’s as good as it can be.’

Carter, the longest-lived U.S. president, announced in February that he would be receiving end-of-life care at his modest, one-story house in Plains, where they lived when he was first elected to the state Senate in 1962. The announcement came because the former president was in and out of the hospital several times earlier this year.

After the Carter family announced the former president would be forgoing further medical intervention, people began sending well-wishes and tributes, Jason Carter said.

‘That’s been one of the blessings of the last couple of months,’ Jason Carter said following an event Tuesday honoring the patriarch. ‘He is certainly getting to see the outpouring, and it’s been gratifying to him for sure.’

It also prompted attention to the global humanitarian work the couple has done since co-founding The Carter Center in 1982.

Jason Carter said his grandfather also continues to enjoy peanut butter ice cream.

And, despite the presidential couple’s fame, Jason Carter said they were ‘just like all of y’all’s grandparents.’

‘I mean, to the extent y’all’s grandparents are rednecks from south Georgia,’ he laughingly added. ‘If you go down there even today, next to their sink they have a little rack where they dry Ziplock bags.’

Andrew Young, who was appointed Carter’s U.N. Ambassador in 1977, told The Associated Press that he visited the Carters ‘a few weeks back.’

He was ‘very pleased we could laugh and joke about old times,’ said Young, 91.

Young, who also served as an aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement, praised Carter’s push for unity and said he believed ‘that the world can come to Georgia and show everybody how to live together.’

Jimmy Carter will turn 99 this year. He was born on October 1, 1924

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Two Black Kansas lawmakers, one Democrat and one Republican, are taking aim at their state’s Democratic governor after she torpedoed a project that would restore and develop a significant portion of the Underground Railroad. 

Gov. Laura Kelly axed the project, which had been championed by Democratic state Rep. Marvin Robinson, after Robinson sided against the governor on key votes involving abortion and transgender athletes. Kelly used her veto to nix the project from the state budget.

The project would have received $250,000 in the next state budget for drafting a state plan to develop and make restorations to the Quindaro Ruins in Kansas City, Kansas, which Robinson represents. Quindaro was a town and a station on the Underground Railroad that helped enslaved people escape to Canada.

Robinson told Fox News Digital in an interview that Kelly’s veto was ‘cruel.’

‘To me, it was like cruel and torture, I don’t know so much about payback and all the other unfortunate terms that people used,’ Robinson said, questioning how the funding almost made its way through before it was abruptly halted by the governor.

Despite the ‘mean things that were being done during the legislative session, many by the Democrats, mostly by the Democrat-elected legislators in the House,’ Robinson told Fox News that it ‘wasn’t bigger than God.’ One of Robinson’s fellow Democrats had referred to him as a ‘house Negro’ for siding with Republicans on key votes.

Kansas Republican state Rep. Patrick Penn, who, like Robinson, is Black and helped secure the funding for the Underground Railroad project, was scathing in his rebuke of Kelly and other Democrats in the state.

‘Diversity of thought exists in the Black community just like every other. No other race has the expectation placed upon them by White liberal elites that we line up and vote for Democrats like the Black community does,’ Penn told Fox News Digital in a video interview. ‘Such bigoted expectations are both unfortunate relics of a small-minded past and simply unconscionable.’

‘Marvin Robinson, as a new state representative, has been nothing but the most integrity-filled, the most caring and gentle, and the most passionate for his people here in the House 35th District,’ he continued. ‘He cares about their vision, their values, and he votes accordingly.’

‘He understands that the Quindaro Ruins, the site and the burial grounds and everything, is a good Kansas story because it tells the story of how this state was created in 1861. It’s a free state to stand against the tyranny of racism and slavery, and that’s his passion,’ Penn added of Robinson.

‘Democrats owned Marvin’s great, great-grandfather down in Texas, so it’s no small idea that they think that they own his vote in the Kansas legislature, as well,’ Penn added. ‘Marvin showed them standing tall that they absolutely do not.’

Kelly told lawmakers in her veto message last week that the Quindaro site is a ‘fundamental piece of Kansas history,’ but noted that Republicans added the money to the budget during their final days in session this year. Kelly said the idea had not been vetted, and her veto will stand because lawmakers have adjourned for the year.

‘Advocates should work through the proper channels to seek funding for this measure and ensure that it receives the recognition it deserves,’ Kelly wrote in her message. She gave virtually the same statement to Fox News Digital when asked for comment, noting her administration ‘recognizes the importance of this culturally significant site’ and that she ‘will support efforts to elevate this fundamental piece of Kansas history and honor the surrounding community.’

Robinson told Fox News Digital that he has not spoken with Kelly since she axed the funding from the state budget, insisting she ‘had the right to do what she did.’

‘I feel kind of sorry for her because what it reflected was a very mean-spirited, almost unbelievable depth of misunderstanding’ the importance and significance of the Quindaro Ruins, Robinson said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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An advocacy and think tank organization issued a travel advisory to California and Minnesota after lawmakers passed legislation to override out-of-state parental rights. 

The American Principles Project (APP) is warning parents across the United States of the possibility of their parental rights being stripped away as recent legislation in California and Minnesota move to give state family courts the power to take temporary emergency jurisdiction over a minor coming into the state to access sex-change drugs or surgical procedures, regardless of if the minor is traveling from another state.

‘Parents will do anything to protect our children. To lose your child and be powerless to prevent harm from coming to them would be any parent’s worst nightmare. Yet today, families traveling to California or Minnesota could be at risk for that awful scenario actually playing out — losing custody of their kids to an industry that aims to sterilize and mutilate their bodies,’ APP President Terry Schilling said in a statement. ‘It is frightening, and enraging, to think such anti-family policies have taken hold here in the United States.’

‘It is frightening, and enraging, to think such anti-family policies have taken hold here in the United States.’

— Terry Schilling, The American Principles Project President

‘While we have seen great strides throughout the country by lawmakers fighting back against this agenda, we must still be realistic about where things stand. Right now, parents traveling to both these states with their children run a very real risk of having their families ripped apart,’ Schilling added.

In September, California lawmakers passed Senate Bill 107 that established the state as a refuge for transgender children and their families. The bill was introduced earlier this year by state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat. 

‘California must stand with LGBTQ kids and their families, especially when they’re under attack across the country,’ Wiener said in a statement. ‘Parents should never be separated from their kids or criminalized for simply allowing them to be who they are.’

In April, Minnesota lawmakers passed similar legislation that would establish the state as a ‘trans refuge’ for children who are seeking transgender medical procedures but who may be denied ‘gender-affirming care’ in other states.

In a party-line 68-62 vote, the Minnesota House passed HF 146, which had been introduced by Rep. Leigh Finke of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Finke is the state’s first transgender lawmaker. The Minnesota Senate passed the legislation by a vote of 34-30 on Friday, April 21.

Additional legislation is being considered in California, AB-957, to require family courts to ‘strongly consider that affirming the minor’s gender identity is in the best interest of the child if a nonconsenting parent objects to a name and gender marker change to affirm conform to the minor’s gender identity.’

This bill would require the court to strongly consider that affirming the minor’s gender identity is in the best interest of the child if a nonconsenting parent objects to a name and gender marker change to affirm conform to the minor’s gender identity.

Schilling is encouraging parents to get informed and get organized, warning that, ‘the left is aiming to enact similar policies at the federal level and in all 50 states.’

‘The left is aiming to enact similar policies at the federal level and in all 50 states. The only way to stop them is to make sure more Americans are informed about their plans and to defeat them electorally,’ Schilling told Fox News Digital. ‘The good news is that most voters oppose the left’s anti-family agenda, but parents must continue to make their presence felt in politics to ensure anti-family forces do not ultimately succeed.’

‘The left is aiming to enact similar policies at the federal level and in all 50 states.’

— Terry Schilling, The American Principles Project President

Schilling’s shared that there are legislators on both the federal and state levels working to fight for parental right. 

‘While more still needs to be done, it’s good to see at least some legislators are making an attempt to fight back on behalf of parents,’ Schilling said. 

In March, the Republican-majority in Congress passed the Parents Bill of Rights which, among other things, moved to dictate school’s to notify parents on the schools’ transgender student policies.

The legislation would require schools to inform parents if a school allows transgender students to participate in sports that don’t match the gender a student was given at birth. It would also require schools to tell parents if transgender students are allowed to use bathrooms that don’t correspond with the gender a student was given at birth.

Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed several new bills into law, including a ban on transgender treatments for children and legislation regarding the use of pronouns in schools. 

One of the bills signed by DeSantis, SB 254, prohibits anyone under age 18 from undergoing sex-reassignment surgeries or taking prescription-based cross-sex hormones to treat gender dysphoria. The bill would also make permanent a state rule banning Medicaid from reimbursing people of all ages who undergo the procedures.  

‘This will permanently outlaw the mutilation of minors. It will outlaw the surgical procedures and experimental puberty blockers for minors,’ he said prior to signing SB 254. ‘It will also require any adults receiving these surgeries to be informed about the irreversible nature and about the dangers of the procedures. It will give the courts temporary jurisdiction to intervene and halt procedures for out-of-state children.’

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo and Greg Norman contributed to this report.

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Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., consistently claimed there was strong evidence of collusion between Russia and former President Donald Trump, but those statements were contradicted by the release of Special Counsel John Durham’s report on the Trump investigation.

‘In our investigation, we saw strong evidence of collusion – the Republicans now are choosing to bury it,’ Swalwell told CNN in March 2018, eventually clarifying that he believed there is ‘clear collusion.’

Durham’s report on his investigation, released this month, showed otherwise, as it concluded intelligence agencies had no ‘actual evidence of collusion’ to justify their launch of the Trump-Russia investigation. These findings added to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report in 2019 that concluded there was no evidence the Trump campaign engaged in a criminal plot to collude with the Russians to influence the 2016 election.

Swalwell, though, continued to push the collusion narrative in his media appearances from 2018 to 2019.

‘It’s always smelled like collusion,’ he told Politico in November 2018. ‘It doesn’t smell less like collusion. It smells more.’

The Durham report concluded the Department of Justice and FBI ‘failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law’ as it launched an investigation premised on ‘raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence.’ 

‘In particular, there was significant reliance on investigative leads provided or funded (directly or indirectly) by Trump’s political opponents,’ the report stated. ‘The Department did not adequately examine or question these materials and the motivations of those providing them, even when at about the same time the Director of the FBI and others learned of significant and potentially contrary intelligence.’

Swalwell cited internal investigations from Democrats on the intelligence committee to claim Trump had direct involvement in collusion with the Russians. 

‘There’s circumstantial evidence that [Trump] colluded,’ he told MSNBC in March 2019. ‘The president knew the Russians were seeking to help him. So he went out as a candidate and invited them to hack more.’

These claims were never proven, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., removed Swalwell from the committee once Republicans took control of the House this year.

Swalwell’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

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