Judge weighing whether to compel Trump administration to unfreeze FEMA funds
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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge is weighing whether to compel the Trump administration to unfreeze millions of dollars in previously allocated FEMA funds.
A coalition of 22 Democratic attorneys general says the administration is illegally withholding the funds despite a court order requiring their payment.
The attorneys general have asked the judge to compel the Trump administration to unfreeze the payments, alleging that at least 16 states have been unable to access money from 140 FEMA grants.
According to their motion filed in federal court on Friday, programs whose funds have been frozen include wildfire prevention, emergency management, terrorism prevention, cybersecurity, and flood mitigation.
“The safety of our residents is not a game and should not be subject to partisan politics and retribution from the President and his appointees,” said New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, one of the 22 attorneys general who filed the motion.
In January, a federal judge in Rhode Island prohibited the Trump administration from unilaterally freezing federal funding. While the Trump administration unfroze some of the funds, the attorneys general allege that the federal government continues to withhold millions in FEMA funding.
Their court filing included multiple examples of FEMA’s payment system showing the grants continuing to be frozen.
The dispute about the FEMA funds comes as the Trump administration is considering reshaping or abolishing FEMA. In January, Trump signed an executive order to begin the process to reform or consider “getting rid of” the agency tasked with disaster relief.
(WASHINGTON) — In a sweeping change that could American save consumers time and money — the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Tuesday finalized a rule that would ban surprise “junk fees” for live event tickets, hotels and vacation rentals.
The rule would require businesses to disclose total prices upfront, rather than tacking on extra costs like “convenience fees” or “resort fees” when consumers check out online.
“Whatever price you see is the price that you are paying at the end, no more mystery surprise fees at the very end of the process, which really cheat consumers and also punish honest businesses,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in an exclusive interview with ABC News.
The FTC said the final rule, which takes effect around April of next year, could save consumers 53 million hours in wasted time searching for the total price of live event tickets or short-term lodging — equal to about $11 billion in savings over a decade.
The rule would not stop businesses from charging fees. But they would be required to list prices clearly from the onset and to display the total cost more prominently on a website than any other price.
“This should really provide the American people with just some more clarity and confidence so they don’t feel like they’re getting cheated or having to be bait and switched by all of these deceptive pricing tactics,” Khan said. “This is really about saving people money and saving people time.”
The change is part of a broader push from the administration of President Joe Biden to lower costs as households have been plagued by stubborn inflation. Last week the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a final rule to curb bank overdraft fees.
In a statement to ABC News, Biden said: “Today’s announcement builds on work across my Administration to ban junk fees and lower costs — saving many families hundreds of dollars each year.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has opposed the rule, calling it “nothing more than an attempt to micromanage businesses’ pricing structures, often undermining businesses’ ability to give consumers options at different price points.”
The business lobbying group has already sued the FTC over other regulations, including a rule to ban noncompete agreements for millions of workers.
Asked about the likelihood the junk fee rule would face challenges in court, Khan told ABC News the FTC is on “firm legal grounds.”
“We’ve also seen bipartisan proposals in Congress to take on these junk fees in these in these industries,” Khan said. “I can’t predict the future, but I’d be very surprised if something that’s just common sense was going to be stripped away.”
At the helm of the FTC, Khan has been credited with ushering in a new era of anti-trust regulation, challenging the business models of major corporations in industries ranging from Big Tech to pharmaceuticals. Her aggressive approach quickly made her a prominent target among conservatives and Wall Street investors.
President-elect Trump announced last week he nominated Andrew Ferguson, a current Republican FTC commissioner, to replace Khan.
“These junk fees have really proliferated across the economy, and I would want to make sure that future enforcers and future policy makers were taking on these junk fees across the economy,” Khan told ABC News.
As for her political future, Khan said she’s still laser-focused on her current role.
“I’m just focused on doing my job in the in the days and weeks we have left,” she said. “I’ve just been really thrilled to see the enormous support across the country for a strong and vigorous FTC.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Thursday released an assistance guide for those affected by the wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
FEMA said its disaster assistance can “jumpstart” the recovery process.
“FEMA disaster assistance is intended to meet the basic needs of your household for uninsured or underinsured necessary expenses and serious needs to jumpstart your recovery. If you have insurance and are applying for FEMA disaster assistance, you must file a claim with your insurance company first,” a release from the agency says. “By law, FEMA cannot duplicate benefits for losses covered by insurance. If insurance does not cover all your damage, you may be eligible for federal assistance.”
FEMA assistance can come in the form of many options, such as money for essential items like food, water, baby formula, breast feeding supplies, medication and other emergency supplies. Those affected by the fires also can apply for further relief funds, which could cover a stay in hotels if a home was impacted and residents are unable to return, according to the agency.
The White House said FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell is in Los Angeles and, according to a FEMA official, has been in regular contact with state and local leaders and is surveying the damage.
President Joe Biden is set to meet with senior White House and administration officials Thursday at 4:30 p.m. regarding the wildfires and the federal response. On Wednesday, the president declared a “Major Disaster Declaration” to aid in the recovery.
“Yesterday, President Biden approved a Major Disaster declaration for California, allowing impacted communities and survivors to immediately access funds and resources to get through the coming days and begin to recover from the devastation,” the White House said in a fact sheet earlier Thursday. “The Administration is in regular contact with state and local officials, including Governor Newsom, Mayor Bass, their teams, and other state and local officials throughout the impacted areas.”
To learn more about the types of assistance available, the agency says, the public can visit: fema.gov/assistance/individual/program.
(WASHINGTON) — Dozens of Department of Education employees received letters as business hours closed Friday placing them on administrative leave, according to a copy of one letter obtained by ABC News.
While no specific reason was given, some employees told ABC News they believe the only common thread among them is that they attended a voluntary training called the “Diversity Change-Agent Training Program.”
The letter states that the administrative leave notice is not for disciplinary purposes. Rather, it’s being issued under President Donald Trump’s executive order on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and “further guidance” from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, according to the letter.
Per the letter, employees will receive full pay and benefits through the end of the administrative leave. They are not required to do work-related tasks during this time, nor are they required to come into the office. Employees who were placed on leave also had their government email access suspended as they received the letters. There’s no set time for the leave period, according to the letter.
The letters have caused a frenzy throughout the department, as some employees had been locked out of their accounts and had to check their private email addresses for the notice, according to Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 252.
Smith told ABC News more than 50 employees in “extremely diverse roles” within the department received the email notices to their government email addresses or their private email accounts after regular business hours over the weekend.
ABC News spoke with three Department of Education employees who received the letters and described their leave as “paid administrative hell” since Friday evening.
“It’s very, very, unsettling,” one department employee of over 20 years, who works in Washington, D.C., told ABC News. “I don’t get it. What’s my crime? What have I done?”
Smith said the positions of Department of Education employees placed on leave run the gamut, from senior civil rights attorneys to attorneys for borrower defense to press specialists. She said she feared more letters would be sent in the coming days.
An attorney who works for the department in Washington, D.C., said they were put on leave from their “dream job.” The employee has two children and received the notice after putting them to bed on Friday night, they said. The person said Friday was tough and the news was shocking to receive, but now they’re feeling “different levels” of sadness.
“My mood felt a little bit different just waking up knowing that I wasn’t going to be working,” the employee told ABC News.
“But I just feel like there’s a lot of information that I’m trying to process and, with small kids, it’s like you’re trying to balance a lot,” the employee added.
The letters came as the Trump administration worked to scrub the federal government’s DEI policies and programs. The president issued an executive order during his first week in office calling on agencies to “combat” private-sector DEI programs.
Trump’s rhetoric — including threatening for months to shutter the Department of Education — has created fear throughout the department, according to Smith.
“People took these jobs because they care about the mission,” Smith told ABC News. “And so it absolutely impacts us. You know, the very thing that brought us to these jobs we’re unable to do.”
The department employee with two small children has worked for the department for just over four years and comes from a family of educators. The employee said education is the “great equalizer,” and the Department of Education benefits everyone.
“I believe in the department,” the department attorney said, adding: “I always wanted to work here.”
In a statement to ABC News, Department of Education Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications Madi Biedermann said the president was elected to enact “unprecedented reform” that is merit-based and efficient at serving the interests of the American people.
“We are evaluating staffing in line with the commitment to prioritizing meaningful learning ahead of divisive ideology in schools and putting student outcomes above special interests,” Biedermann wrote.
ABC News has reached out to the White House for comment.
Meanwhile, the three department employees who spoke to ABC News said they’re completely stumped on why they were issued administrative leave notices. The department employee with decades of experience in Washington also said it’s puzzling, in part, because during Trump’s first term, managers were evaluated on upholding DEI standards via a department performance rating system.
“We were expected to do DEI,” the employee said. “That’s what Trump and [then-Education Secretary] Betsy DeVos wanted us to do. They wanted to do that. They put it in our [performance] plans. We did not put that in our plans. And not only that, it is in every manager’s plan in the department, not just people that are on administrative leave.”
“Every single person in the Department of Education that’s a supervisor or a manager right now has [DEI] in their performance plan — that is programmed in by the department,” the employee added.
The administrative leave notices may have been tied to a two-day “Diversity Change-Agent Training Program,” a facilitator-led training, according to training document slides obtained by ABC News. The training took place over two days dating as far back as March 2019, under DeVos and during Trump’s first term, according to a February 2019 email obtained by ABC News with the subject “Diversity Change Agent Course.”
The training program aimed to create specific action plans to “drive diversity and inclusion” and increase creativity and innovation. The program also challenged employees to achieve greater results by championing the diversity of its workforce while creating and sustaining an inclusive environment, according to the training document slides.
Another department employee, who took the 2019 training and works remotely out of the New York offices, called the notice “bizarre,” especially since the 2019 training occurred during the president’s first term.
“The whole thing is bizarre,” the department employee told ABC News. “Betsy DeVos — and [Trump’s] prior administration — was a decent champion of these programs, and they didn’t come with any warning to me to say, ‘Hey, taking this training might lead to an adverse personnel action one day,’ right? So it’s just strange how they can retroactively apply something.”
The department employees on leave who spoke to ABC News said they have no official DEI responsibilities in their roles. All three department employees who spoke with ABC News also confirmed the only DEI-like program that would potentially be barred under Trump’s executive order would be the change-agent training sessions.
However, to their knowledge, the three employees on leave said there’s no official list or way of matching the employees on administrative leave with the training programs. Even though they’re convinced these trainings link them to the Trump administration’s definition of DEI, the employees haven’t confirmed why they’re on leave, according to the ones who spoke to ABC News.
The employee who works out of New York has more than a dozen years of experience in administering federal programs. Multiple other employees on administrative leave that this employee spoke to over the weekend said they also took the 2019 training, according to the employee.
“That’s the only thing we can think of that any of us did,” the employee said.
After reaching out to other colleagues with the same titles, the employee in New York said, they “pieced it together.” This employee said they took at least three training programs like the diversity change-agent training program since the initial training.
