Federal judge orders halt to White House ballroom construction

(NEW YORK) — Rudy Giuliani is hospitalized in critical condition and “is recovering from pneumonia” after being on ventilator, his spokesman said. 

The 81-year-old former New York City mayor is critical but stable, spokesman Ted Goodman said in a statement on Sunday.

He “is being monitored as a precautionary measure,” Goodman said in a followup statement on Monday.

Giuliani served as New York City’s mayor from 1994 to 2001. Goodman noted in Monday’s statement that Giuliani “ran toward the towers to help those in need” on Sept. 11, 2001, “which later led to a diagnosis of restrictive airway disease.”

“This condition adds complications to any respiratory illness, and the virus quickly overwhelmed his body, requiring mechanical ventilation to maintain adequate oxygen and stabilize his condition,” he said. “He is now breathing on his own, with his family and primary medical provider at his side.”

Restrictive lung disease refers to a group of conditions where the lungs can’t fully expand, so people take in less air and often feel short of breath, according to the CDC.

After his term as mayor, Giuliani was a personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, who wrote about Giuliani’s hospitalization in a social media post on Sunday. The president called Giuliani “a True Warrior, and the Best Mayor in the History of New York City, BY FAR.”

A spokesperson for Eric Adams, who was the city’s mayor from 2022 to 2025, noted Giuliani’s service in a statement.

“From his years as a federal prosecutor to leading New York City through its darkest day on 9/11, he stood with this city when it needed him most,” Adams spokesperson Todd Shapiro said.

People with restrictive lung disease face a higher risk of pneumonia because stiff or scarred lungs make it harder to clear mucus and fight infection.

Studies show patients with interstitial lung disease have significantly higher hospitalization and death rates from pneumonia than the general population, especially in older adults and those with advanced disease.

There are about 650,000 cases of interstitial lung diseases in the U.S. Various conditions that fall within this diagnosis are linked to 9/11 exposure and are covered by the World Trade Health program. 

– ABC News’ Isabella Murray, Darren Reynolds and Liz Neporent contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Mayors from Minnesota to Louisiana traveled to Washington earlier this month with a bipartisan message that protecting the Mississippi River is not just an environmental issue, it is a matter of national security.

The mayors met with lawmakers and federal officials, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, as part of their annual Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative fly-in, and later spoke with ABC News about growing pressures facing the river corridor.

Stretching more than 2,300 miles through 10 states, the Mississippi River forms the backbone of one of the most important economic corridors in America. According to data shared by the mayors’ coalition, the river system generates nearly $500 billion in annual revenue and directly supports about 1.5 million jobs.

Its waters also carry a massive share of the nation’s agricultural exports, making the river central to U.S. and global food supply chains. According to the National Park Service, the Mississippi River Basin accounts for 92% of America’s agricultural exports, including 78% of the world’s exports of grains and soybeans.

Founded in 2012, the Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative (MRCTI) brings together local governments along the river corridor to coordinate priorities including clean water, economic stability, disaster resilience and food security.

However, this year’s trip to Washington came with new urgency.

Several mayors said the rise of artificial intelligence, declining infrastructure, growing demand for water and energy, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East affecting fuel prices and increasingly severe weather events are placing unprecedented pressures on the region.

One concern raised during the discussions was growing interest from water-scarce regions in the western U.S.

“The Colorado River Basin is looking at the Mississippi River Basin to move water into areas of Phoenix, Vegas — the places that are most water insecure on the continent,” Colin Wellenkamp, executive director of MRCTI and a Missouri state representative, told ABC News.

He added they “are looking into the Mississippi River basin for their water supply for the future.”

Coalition co-chair Mayor Melisa Logan of Blytheville, Arkansas, said the river system has become a national security concern as water demands grow.

“This water is absolutely essential for the security of the country, and you move it to another basin irresponsibly, right? That puts the nation at risk,” Logan told ABC News.

Several major U.S. water systems are already governed by interstate compacts, including the Great Lakes Water Compact and the Delaware River Basin Compact. These legally binding agreements, often approved by Congress, help to establish rules for managing and protecting shared water resources.

Supporters of a Mississippi River Compact say a similar framework could help coordinate policy across the 10 states that rely on a basin that supports national and international trade and food supply chains.

“That’s why these mayors are pursuing a Mississippi River Compact to protect the Mississippi,” Wellenkamp said.

He noted that his state passed a law for such an agreement.

“The other nine states aren’t far behind, because this is a real risk in the future,” Wellenkamp added.

Beyond water access, many mayors said the rising cost of disasters has become another urgent concern for communities along the river.

Logan, Blytheville’s mayor, said protecting the river requires key coordination across state lines, as communities along the river often struggle to secure federal funding for projects that cross state boundaries.

“Typically, they do it state by state by state,” Logan said, referring to federal funding programs. “But these impacts are multi-state by watershed.”

According to MRCTI materials, natural disasters along the Mississippi River corridor have caused more than $250 billion in losses since 2005.

Mayor Buz Craft of Vidalia, Louisiana, said local leaders often face delays when seeking federal disaster assistance.

“We need Congress to quit changing the goal post, for example, when we have an issue, whether it’s a tornado or hurricane,” he said.

Changing White House administrations can also put them back to square one, Craft noted.

“Just when you are about to get that funding for that past disaster they say ‘Oh, now you got to go through this,’ start all over and apply to this program, and it’s really a rat race,” he said.

Global instability is also beginning to show up in everyday costs for residents along the river. Several of the mayors said fuel prices along the Mississippi River recently jumped about 20 cents overnight. Those increases can quickly ripple through food prices, the mayors said, because much of the nation’s food supply moves by truck, rail or barge along the Mississippi River system.

Meanwhile, some communities are also preparing for a different kind of pressure, the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure. The data centers that power AI systems require massive amounts of electricity and water for cooling, placing new increased demands on local power grids and water systems.

Mayor David Goins of Alton, Illinois, said companies have already begun exploring potential sites in his city.

“I think it’s important to get in front of it and get ahead of it,” he said. “This meeting right here is timely to get the resources that we can, that we can have at our disposal through different companies, organizations, to start preparing ordinances and start getting some type of framework or groundwork, because it’s coming.”

For the mayors gathered in Washington, the message they hoped policymakers would hear was simple: the Mississippi River’s importance stretches far beyond the cities along its banks.

“If you don’t live on the Mississippi River, you don’t necessarily understand the importance of the Mississippi River Basin to our entire continent,” Quincy, Illinois, Mayor Linda Moore said. “One in 12 people in the world is fed by food that flows up and down the Mississippi on a barge or from the river itself.”

For the mayors who traveled to Washington this week, the Mississippi River is more than a waterway — it is an economic lifeline whose currents shape American agriculture, trade and communities across the country.

Mayor Hollies Winston of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, said the river’s influence reaches far beyond the 10 states it touches, and may stretch long into the future.

“If that water is not protected, we don’t know the impact that that has on the economy 15, 20, 30 years from now,” Winston said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Congress returns from its two-week recess early this week — thrusting lawmakers back into the debate surrounding the Iran war as the President Donald Trump’s strategy faces continued scrutiny.

House and Senate Democrats plan to force separate votes in both chambers on Iran war powers resolutions this week. These resolutions would call on the president to terminate the use of U.S. armed forces in hostilities against Iran or any part of the Iranian government or military unless a declaration of war or authorization to use military force is enacted.

Previously these efforts have narrowly failed, but as the conflict drags on and lawmakers continue to face questions about the president’s actions, additional Republicans could decide to support the efforts.

Expulsion votes possible for four lawmakers
The House could move as early as this week to expel several members of Congress.

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said she will force a vote to expel Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., next week amid allegations of sexual assault. Texas GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales could also face a similar vote after he admitted to having an affair with a former staffer. And Florida Democrat Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is expected to face an expulsion vote, likely following a House Ethics Committee sanction hearing on April 21. The congresswoman was indicted on charges of stealing $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds, which she is accused of laundering to support her 2021 congressional campaign.

Expelling a member of Congress — which is a rare occurrence — requires a two-thirds majority vote, a higher threshold than the simple majority needed to pass most legislation. Only six lawmakers in U.S. history have been expelled, including George Santos in 2023.

As the expulsion resolutions stack up, Democrats are also clamoring for the expulsion of Florida Republican Rep. Cory Mills, who has faced his own allegations of misconduct.  

Speaker Mike Johnson has previously been opposed to expulsion efforts and has argued that lawmakers deserve due process.

Awaiting Johnson’s next move on DHS funding
Lawmakers return as the Department of Homeland Security’s partial shutdown drags on — hitting Day 66 on Monday when the Senate returns to session.

The partial shutdown is the longest in U.S. history.

Johnson has not yet acted on the Senate’s DHS funding bill, which stripped out funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

It’s not clear what Johnson’s next move will be to attempt to reopen the agency, as he balances threats to the gavel against an arduous path to fully fund DHS’ breadth of agencies via reconciliation. 

The Senate plans to move forward with a narrow budget reconciliation bill to fund ICE and CPB for the next three years with Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham leading the charge, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said.

Trump said on Friday that he met with senators Graham and John Barrasso to discuss the matter.

“Reconciliation is ON TRACK, and we are moving FAST and FOCUSED in keeping our Border SECURE, and getting funding to the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department to continue our incredible SUCCESS at MAKING AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!” Trump wrote on his social media platform on Friday.

While reconciliation is a lengthy process that sidesteps the filibuster, Trump has demanded that the bill land on his desk by June 1 — an enormous challenge for Republicans navigating small margins in both chambers.

As the next legislative blitz approaches, House Republicans get a smidgeon of relief with the arrival of Rep.-elect Clay Fuller, who won a special election in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District earlier this month to fill the seat once occupied by Marjorie Taylor Greene. Fuller is expected to take the oath of office during the House’s first vote series on Tuesday, April 14.

The addition means that Johnson can afford to lose two GOP votes with all members voting and present.

Cabinet members defend their budgets
Trump’s FY2027 budget requests also take center stage as several Cabinet secretaries and administration officials are slated to testify before lawmakers including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Director of the United States Office of Management and Budge Russ Vought, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Secret Service Director Sean Curran and more. 

Bipartisan backlash over Bondi
While first lady Melania Trump brought the saga around convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein back into the headlines, the GOP-led House Oversight Committee is not slated to hold any depositions this week as part of their ongoing investigation into Epstein. The Department of Justice said former Attorney General Pam Bondi will not appear for a closed-door deposition with the committee on Tuesday, April 14 — which has prompted bipartisan backlash from lawmakers on the committee. The next scheduled deposition is expected April 30. 

Conservatives present challenge for Johnson on FISA
House Republican leadership are also aiming to put a clean extension of FISA Section 702, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, on the floor for a vote sometime this week. The federal law sets out rules and procedures for gathering foreign intelligence through electronic surveillance, physical searches, pen registers and more.

Johnson and Trump have publicly backed a clean extension through October 2027. However, several House conservatives do not support a clean extension — presenting Johnson a challenge to pass the bill relying on help from Democrats, who are mostly reluctant to help Republicans and Trump accomplish anything legislatively.

Once the House passes FISA legislation, the Senate will need to take up the measure by April 20 — when the law is set to expire.

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