Updates on White House Actions on FEMA, federal spending, accreditation, and more

Six months into this presidential term, here are a few updates on issues we’ve covered so far.

Autopen’d pardons

In June, President Trump launched a probe into the use of the “autopen” to sign documents by former President Joe Biden as a means for Biden’s staff to allegedly defraud the public and hide his alleged cognitive decline. Previous presidents have used the autopen and it has been established as a legal practice, as we wrote back in March. Trump’s theory is that Biden was not aware of documents he signed via autopen, but no evidence has substantiated this claim to date. Trump has used the autopen, though he claims only to use it for signing “unimportant things” like responses to letters. But in March he denied having signed the proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act despite his signature appearing on the order.

Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who served as Biden’s White House physician, was subpoenaed as part of a similar investigation by the House Oversight Committee. O’Connor invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and doctor-patient confidentiality when questioned during a closed-door hearing in the House. Several other Biden aides have also been subpoenaed — two more have invoked Fifth Amendment rights. House Oversight chairman Jamie Comer says the committee will release a full report when the probe is complete.

FEMA

In May, acting FEMA administrator Cameron Hamilton was fired a day after testifying to Congress that he didn’t believe FEMA should be eliminated. It was a clear departure from the position of the Trump administration to “wean” off of FEMA and have states respond to disasters with less help from the federal government. FEMA’s role today is to respond when a disaster surpasses a state’s capability for effective response. Hamilton was replaced by David Richardson, a former Marine Corps officer serving as the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary of countering weapons of mass destruction.

Richardson said that his goal was to “return primacy to the states” and announced that they would not be releasing a disaster plan for this year’s hurricane season. To inform a restructuring of the agency, FEMA is performing an analysis to limit its activities to the bare minimum requirements by law which may likely result in additional staff reductions. The agency has already seen staff reductions by approximately one-third and has been slow to respond to disaster declarations approved by Trump.

At a meeting of the FEMA review council on July 9 in New Orleans, which DHS Secretary Kristi Noem attended via Zoom, she stated that the “entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today and remade into a responsive agency.”

Impoundment / Rescission

On July 18, Congress approved a clawback of previously allocated funds for public broadcasting and foreign aid. This comes, as we previously reported, at Trump’s request. The measure canceled more than $9 billion in total, $1.1 billion for NPR and PBS, and $8.3 billion for foreign humanitarian aid, migration and refugee assistance, and development assistance like water and food security. It passed in the House on June 12, 214-212, with some Republicans casting a “no” vote at first, but switching to yes before voting ended.

Four Republicans in the House voted with Democrats to oppose the bill: Michael Turner (OH), Nicole Malliotakis (NY), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) and Mark Amodei (NV). Opposition was centered on the dependence of rural communities on public broadcasting for local and regional news, and the negative impact of ending programs abroad.

In a hearing on June 25, Republican Sen. Susan Collins (ME) referred to the aid which would be cut as “incredible instruments of soft power” and pointed out that 70% of funding to NPR and PBS goes to local stations. In the same hearing, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY) said “Instead of creating efficiencies you’ve created vacuums for adversaries like China to fill.” Collins and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK) joined Democrats on the final Senate vote, 48-51.

The clawed-back funds were originally enacted into law in a bill signed by Trump with Democrats’ help in March. After seeing a funding deal reversed, Democrats may be less likely to help again.

Accreditation

The Trump Administration’s battle with Harvard continues, although threats to revoke Harvard’s accreditation status have not. Instead, the Administration has focused on cutting funding to the university in a number of ways including research funding and threatening Harvard’s ability to accept financial aid. On June 30, the Administration formally accused Harvard of tolerating antisemitism, asserting that Harvard violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which could deepen existing federal funding cuts to loans and grants for student tuition. Harvard President Alan Garber previously announced new initiatives to combat antisemitism, and has acknowledged issues with both antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus.

Meanwhile, university systems in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina have committed to creating a new accreditor which they’re calling the Commission for Public Higher Education to assess their colleges. As previously reported, Trump signed an executive order targeting accreditors that required universities to maintain certain “DEI” practices, such as a commitment to equity in the school’s mission statement or finances. (The current accreditor for these schools does not have a DEI requirement.) Establishing a new accreditor is a years-long process, but Trump’s order tasks the Department of Education with reform of the system which could make the process of recognizing new accreditors faster.

National Guard in LA

California sued the Trump Administration over its activation of the state’s National Guard in Los Angeles due to protests over immigration raids. Initially, a lower court judge found that the action was illegal, but that decision was overturned by an appeals court on June 19, stating that the Trump Administration presented enough evidence for sufficient rationale due to violence that occurred during the protests. The appeals court also ruled that governors do not have the authority to veto a presidential order to activate the National Guard. Still, a trial has been set in August — by which point the issue may be moot if the Administration deactivates the troops — to determine whether Trump’s ongoing use of the National Guard violates the Posse Comitatus Act, which we explained in our initial coverage prevents the military from participating in civilian law enforcement.

On July 7, the National Guard joined ICE officers in a raid in MacArthur Park, a majority-immigrant neighborhood in Los Angeles. Troops occupied the park on foot, horseback, and with several military vehicles. They pointed guns at citizens and told them to leave. Gregory Bovino, Customers and Border Protection chief is Southern California said of the event “Better get used to us now, cause this is going to be normal very soon. We will go anywhere, anytime we want in Los Angeles.”

We’ll have a separate update on immigration actions at the end of the week.