House Republicans meet with Trump to ‘move the ball forward’ on his agenda

(WASHINGTON) — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, during her first press briefing on Tuesday, faced a barrage of questions on the administration’s freeze on federal financial assistance programs that congressional Democrats called flatly illegal.

Agencies face a 5 p.m. ET deadline to comply with a memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget to cease spending on any grant or loan programs if they suspect it might conflict with President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders on DEI, foreign aid, climate spending more.

The memo prompted widespread confusion among advocacy organizations and state officials, some of whom reported error messages when trying to access portals to draw down funds for Medicaid, community health centers and more.

A legal challenge has been filed by nonprofits and health groups who argue the Office of Management and Budget is exceeding its authority.

“There’s no uncertainty in this building,” Leavitt said when asked to clarify about exactly what programs will be impacted.

“Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits, food stamps, welfare benefits, assistance that is going directly to individuals will not be impacted by this pause,” she said.

Leavitt later added, “However, it is the responsibility of this president and this administration to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. That is something that President Trump campaigned on.”

Leavitt said the freeze was temporary, but did not expand on a specific timeline on when it would end.

When asked if Medicaid was impacted by the pause, Leavitt couldn’t immediately say. She also did not directly respond to a question on the impact on organizations like Meals on Wheels, which provides meals to 2.2 million seniors, or Head Start, a program for preschool education, that receive federal funding.

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden posted on social media about reports about Medicaid portals being down in states as he criticized the freeze.

Leavitt, after the briefing, wrote on X: “The White House is aware of the Medicaid website portal outage. We have confirmed no payments have been affected — they are still being processed and sent. We expect the portal will be back online shortly.”

An OMB memo obtained by ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott also sought to shed light on the freeze’s implications.

According to the memo, “in addition to Social Security and Medicare, already explicitly excluded in the guidance, mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause.”

“Funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell grants, Head Start, rental assistance, and other similar programs will not be paused,” the document read. “If agencies are concerned that these programs may implicate the President’s Executive Orders, they should consult OMB to begin to unwind these objectionable policies without a pause in the payments.”

Still, the pause could have sweeping implication as the federal government funds thousands of programs, including housing subsidies and educational grants.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which gives grants for an array of national, state and tribal programs — including some to assist with air and water quality — said on Tuesday it was temporarily pausing disbursement.
 

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a deal brokered by the U.S. “to end the devastating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.”

“This has been the deadliest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in decades,” Biden said in remarks from the Rose Garden.

Biden said the agreement reached will go into effect early Wednesday.

“At 4 a.m. tomorrow local time, the fighting across the Lebanese-Israeli border will end. Will end,” Biden said. “This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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Republican Rep. Mike Lawler argued Sunday that Rep. Mike Johnson should be reelected as speaker of the House despite Republican infighting on whether he should keep the position after how he handled a spending bill that prevented a government shutdown last week.

“Mike Johnson inherited a disaster when [former Rep.] Matt Gaetz and several of my colleagues teamed up with 208 Democrats to remove Kevin McCarthy, which will go down as the single stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in politics,” the New York lawmaker told ABC’s “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

“With that said, removing Mike Johnson would equally be as stupid. The fact is that these folks are playing with fire, and if they think they’re somehow going to get a more conservative speaker, they’re kidding themselves,” he said, pointing out that Johnson was successful in keeping a Republican majority in the House.

Republicans are expected to hold 219 seats when the new Congress convenes on Friday. Electing the speaker of the House will be the first order of business, and the House cannot move on to other business until that happens. If all Democrats are present and vote against Johnson, the Louisiana Republican can only afford to lose one Republican vote. One Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie, has already said he will not support Johnson while other GOP hardliners have yet to commit to backing him.

“I’m not going to bend to their will,” Lawler said of his hardline colleagues. “So if they think somehow that they are going to end up in a stronger position by removing Mike Johnson, they’re not.”

Republicans have also been feuding over H-1B work visas, which allow highly skilled foreign workers into the Unites States to fill specialty occupations.

Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” leaders, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, support increasing the amount of the visas awarded annually, arguing they will bring more talent into the country. But other Trump supporters say those job opportunities should be for Americans.

In a post on X this week, Musk said “OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we DO, as that is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow work visa process. HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.”

Ramaswamy criticized the American workforce, writing on X that “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.”

After Musk went after critics of his position in a series of X posts, writing at one point, “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend,” former Trump adviser Steve Bannon called him a “toddler.”

Lawler voiced his support for the H-1B program, telling Karl that it is critical to the economy.

“As President Trump said, it’s a program he’s used over the years for his businesses, and it’s something that has obviously been beneficial to our economy,” he said. “The United States has been built on immigration and it is vital to the continued growth within our economy.”

Pressed by Karl about why some Trump supporters are strongly against the visas, Lawler expressed his desire for Americans to fill needed jobs, “but the fact is, India is producing a significant number more of engineers than we are. So it’s both a function of fixing our education system and having a legal immigration system that works.”

“You cannot have no immigration at all. It will cripple the economy long-term,” he said.

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