House GOP moves to prevent votes on rescinding Trump tariffs
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans are exhausting all legislative tools to prevent future votes on repealing President Donald Trump’s tariffs — doubling down on their support for the administration’s policies.
GOP leaders on Wednesday inserted language into the “rule” for the budget blueprint that would prohibit the House, until at least September, from forcing a vote on legislation to rescind Trump’s national emergencies authority.
“The rule provides that each day during the period from April 9, 2025, through September 30, 2025, shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 202 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622) with respect to a joint resolution terminating a national emergency declared by the President on April 2, 2025,” the rule states.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., defended the move, telling reporters, “I’ve made it very clear I think the president has executive authority. It’s an appropriate level of authority to deal with the unfair trade practices. That’s part of the role of the president is to negotiate with other countries.”
Johnson said Trump told him Tuesday night that “there are almost 70 countries that are [in] some stage in negotiation of more fair-trade agreement agreements with the United States. I think that is in the interest of the American people. I think that is an ‘America First’ policy that will be effective, and so we have to give them the space to do it.”
House Democrats, led by Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., moved to force a vote on Tuesday on terminating the national emergency authority and blocking Trump’s sweeping tariffs. Now, that vote is unlikely to occur.
This is the second time Johnson has moved to stop the legislative calendar to prevent votes on Trump’s authority on tariffs. Under House rules, these votes would typically come up within 15 calendar days but now will not if the “rule” passes during the vote series Wednesday afternoon.
“I think you’ve got to give him the space,” Johnson argued on Trump’s tariffs. “It is having the desired effect right now. You see a number of nations going forward and proposing much more free trade agreements with the United States. The American people deserve that.”
(NEW YORK) — A 21-year-old junior at Columbia University said she was the person whom federal agents were after when they showed up at a residence on West 113 Street earlier this month — and she is now suing President Donald Trump.
Federal immigration agents showed up at Yunseo Chung’s apartment near the Columbia University campus on March 13, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
However, law enforcement officials told ABC News at the time that the woman they were seeking was not there when the agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations arrived.
Chung, who has lived in the United States since she moved from South Korea at age 7 and had become a legal permanent resident, participated in demonstrations in defense of Palestinians in Gaza and in her lawsuit accused Trump and other officials of “attempting to use immigration enforcement as a bludgeon to suppress speech that they dislike” including Chung’s.
Because Chung participated in a March 5 sit-in inside of an academic building at Barnard College, in addition to demonstrating outside, the federal agents searched her dorm, showed up at her parents’ house and said her status as a legal permanent resident had been revoked, according to her lawsuit.
“The prospect of imminent detention, to be followed by deportation proceedings, has chilled her speech. Ms. Chung is now concerned about speaking up about the ongoing ordeal of Palestinians in Gaza as well as what is happening on her own campus: the targeting of her fellow students by the federal government, the arbitrary disciplinary process she and others are undergoing, and the failure of the university to protect noncitizen students,” the lawsuit said.
“If Ms. Chung is detained and deported, she will be indefinitely separated from her family and community,” the filing continued. “Ms. Chung’s parents reside in the continental United States, and her sister is set to start college in the United States in the fall.”
Trump’s administration argued that Chung’s presence poses risks to foreign policy and to halting the spread of antisemitism — the same rationale the administration invoked for the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who was escorted from Columbia on March 8.
According to the sources, the actions against Chung are part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on individuals it has described as espousing the views of Hamas and threatening the safety of Jewish students.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders contributed to this report.
Trump administration border czar Tom Homan criticized Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s trip to El Salvador to visit deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, accusing the Democrat of traveling “on the taxpayer dime to meet with an MS-13 gang member, public safety threat, [and] terrorist.”
“What concerns me is Van Hollen never went to the border the last four years under Joe Biden,” Homan said in a Friday interview with “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl that aired Sunday. “What shocks me is he’s remained silent on the travesty that happened on the southern border. Many people died, thousands of people died.”
In a separate interview on “This Week,” Van Hollen, D-Md., responded to Homan’s criticism, saying that he has long supported fighting gang violence.
“[Homan] is lying through his teeth on many places in that — in that record. And I have been actually fighting MS-13, probably longer than Donald Trump ever uttered the name MS-13. For 20 years in this region, I helped stand up the anti — you know, gang — anti-gang task force. But the idea that you can’t defend people’s rights under the Constitution and fight MS-13 and gang violence is a very dangerous idea. That’s the idea the president wants to put out. That’s why they’re spreading all these lies.”
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who was residing in Maryland, was deported to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison in March. The White House alleges he is member of the MS-13 gang, which was designated as a “foreign terrorist organization” by the administration; his attorneys and family deny he’s affiliated with the gang.
Abrego Garcia received a protective court order in 2019 barring him from being deported to El Salvador due to fear for his safety. In a court filing, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has acknowledged he should not have been sent to El Salvador, calling it an “administrative error.” The Supreme Court has upheld an order saying the administration must “facilitate” his return to the U.S.
Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador last week and met with Abrego Garcia, whose wife is a U.S. citizen and constituent of Van Hollen’s, on Thursday after initially being denied access to him.
Van Hollen stressed that for him, this case is about protecting constitutional rights, telling Karl, “I am not defending the man. I’m defending the rights of this man to due process.”
But Homan defended the administration’s actions so far, arguing that under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which the administration invoked to deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants including Abrego Garcia, due process rights are more limited.
“I stand by the fact I think we did the right thing here. We removed a public safety threat, a national security threat, a violent gang member from the United States,” Homan said. “We have followed the Constitution. We have followed the law. I am confident that everything we’ve done is follow laws within the constitutional constructs, absolutely.”
He continued, “The length of due process is not the same under the Alien Enemies Act. That’s why the Alien Enemies Act was created. President Trump invoked the authorities he had under the Alien Enemies Act, an act written and passed by Congress and signed by a President. We’re using the laws on the books.”
Homan’s defense of the centuries-old law in his Friday interview came just hours before the Supreme Court temporarily halted its use to deport any Venezuelans being held at a facility in northern Texas.
Karl pressed Homan on the due process rights of the deported undocumented immigrants, citing the 1993 Flores v. Reno Supreme Court opinion authored by conservative Justice Antonin Scalia that noted, “It is well established that the Fifth Amendment entitles aliens to due process of law in deportation proceedings.”
“Are you saying that by invoking the Alien Enemies Act that undocumented immigrants are not entitled to those due process rights under the Fifth Amendment?” Karl asked.
“We’re following the rules of the Alien Enemies Act. Again, I think this administration has followed the law. They’re using statutes enacted by Congress, signed by a president, to remove terrorists from this country. I’m not saying, you know — I’m not saying, I’m not arguing right here that nobody should get due process. I’m just saying there’s a different process under the Alien Enemies Act, and less of a process than you see through Title 8,” Homan said, referring to the immigration statute typically used to deport undocumented immigrants.
Homan also denied that any migrant is being labeled a gang member solely because of tattoos. On Friday, Trump posted a photo on social media of what he says is Abrego Gracia’s hand. The MS-13 symbols appear to be superimposed and it’s not clear if the other tattoos have any link to the gang.
“Tattoos are one of many factors that’s going to determine someone’s in a gang. That’s not the only one,” Homan said. “What I’m saying is you can’t ignore a tattoo. That’s, that’s one more factor that leads you to believe maybe it’s a gang member. It’s just not based on tattoos. It’s based on a lot of other things, but tattoos, one of many. But no one’s removed just because of a tattoo.”
President Donald Trump stands with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon /Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced Friday that two key functions of the agency he is seeking to dismantle, the Department of Education, will be moved to new departments: The Small Business Administration will take on student loans, and the Department of Health and Human Services will take on special needs and nutrition efforts.
“I do want to say that I’ve decided that the SBA, the Small Business Administration, headed by Kelly Loeffler, [who] is a terrific person, will handle all of the student loan portfolio,” he said.
“We have a portfolio that’s very large, lots of loans, tens of thousands of loans — pretty complicated deal. And that’s coming out of the Department of Education immediately,” Trump said, adding that he believes it will be “serviced much better” than it has been.
Student loans are currently overseen by the Federal Student Aid Office within the Department of Education, and it handles not tens of thousands of dollars in loans but $1.6 trillion in loans for 43 million people.
However, the SBA, which already handles billions of dollars in loans each year, has faced cuts since Trump took office, saying it would reduce its staff by 43% amid agencywide reorganization.
The SBA said it would “eliminate approximately 2,700 active positions out of a total active workforce of nearly 6,500 through voluntary resignations, the expiration of COVID-era and other term appointments, and a limited number of reductions in force.”
The Federal Student Aid Office employs over 1,000 employees, but it is unclear whether these employees would move under the SBA or how the agency would handle an influx in loans to manage.
Trump noted that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s HHS will handle “special needs and all of the nutrition programs and everything else,” conceding that it’s “rather complex.”
“Those two elements will be taken out of the Department of Education, and then all we have to do is get the students to get guidance from the people that love them and cherish them,” Trump said.
The president maintained that the core functions would remain intact.
“Pell Grants, Title 1, funding resources for children with disabilities and special needs will be preserved, fully preserved,” Trump said Thursday before signing the bill. “They’re going to be preserved in full and redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them.”
The president did not offer any details about how exactly those portfolios would be transferred to other agencies, saying only that it would happen “immediately.”
At least one component of the plan — moving the student loan system to another department — is likely to face significant legal pushback.
The central legal issue is likely to focus on the Higher Education Act of 1965, which stipulates that the Federal Student Aid Office should be under the purview of the secretary of education.
“Congress has charged the secretary of education with administering the federal student aid program by issuing student loans and grants to support students’ attainment of higher education,” said Andrew Cook, press secretary for the American Federation of Teachers. “The department’s office of Federal Student Aid is statutorily mandated to do so and has the unique expertise to manage the complex student aid program.”
AFT President Randi Weingarten was more blunt: “See you in court,” she said in a statement after Trump signed the executive order on Thursday.
